With Huffman's help, Mellon began sending checks to the decorator marked "an antique Charleston table" and "bookcases." Indeed. Bunny Mellon is aristocratic American history personified, a woman who has entertained two generations of British royalty (Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in 1957 and, three decades later, Charles and Di), lent her jet and accompanied Jackie Kennedy to Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral, gardened in clothes designed by Givenchy, and searched the world for art treasures with an open checkbook and an astute eye. And what a past it was. The voice on the phone was frail but clear, with a hint of Southern gentility. He pleaded not guilty and is preparing for trial this fall. [21], After Jacqueline Kennedy left the White House, Mellon was asked to design landscapes for Kennedy's home in Martha's Vineyard, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, and River Farm, the headquarters of the American Horticultural Society. Outspoken: Bunny Mellon (left) is seen here with her stepdaughter Eliza Lloyd in 1964. "It's hard being 100 and blind. Ironically, Bunnys own interiors and her landscapes, public as well as private, were purposefully designed not to draw attention to themselves. [4][30]:158, At the request of campaign operative Andrew Young, the commitment morphed to include underwriting Edwards' personal expenses. Her social climbing didnt always follow an easy path. Then her daughter was fatally hit in a car accident, and she threw herself even deeper into her career. She often developed her garden designs on paper, with particular attention to scale. Just plain bad." A self-taught botanist, Mellon was tapped by her friend Jacqueline Kennedy to design the White House Rose Garden. After nearly four months on the market for the listing price of $19.8 million the Osterville, Massachusetts, estate, whichincluded some of the last gardens designed by Mellon, found a buyer. "[4][31] While investigating Edwards, the Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed Mellon at Oak Spring on two occasions in 2010. Thanks for contacting us. She had political and social power but not financial power. Although Jackies friendship with Bunny ran deeper than access to Mellon money, once Jackie was no longer in the White House, she became aware of the ease that assets like Bunnys offeredsuch as the peace and privacy of the Mellons house on Antigua, where they retreated in the first traumatic days of January 1964. Old stone walls surround the sun-dappled rolling fields, which feature two enormous greenhouses and a football-field-size cutting garden with branches of fruit trees entwined in a not-seen-in-nature pattern. At debutante balls, fundraisers, and art openings, Ill Build a Stairway to Paradise shows how Mellon became a tastemaker. His view of his grandmother's relationship with Edwards? Stepping up to the polls with Paul, Bunny said, she found she didnt have anything to write with. The Mellons gave Jackie a birthday party in 1966, three years after the assassination, at their home in Oyster Harbors. Rendered a paraplegic and unable to speak, Eliza was transported to her mother's farm for round-the-clock care, surviving for eight years. "He and I were great friends. She is not afraid to face the future. . Mac Griswold says, "I think her view is that he's a cute guy and he's allowed to fool around if he likes. The guest house comes with two separate bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen and a laundry room. . The two women managed to make light of the issues in their own difficult marriages: Pauls relationship with Dorcas Hardin, and JFKs omnivorous promiscuity. In a 2010 interview, she spoke of having purchased a total of thirteen works by Rothko. Her grandson, Stacy Lloyd IV, remembered Mellon as "Granbunny" and how she taught him to find beauty in everything. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Kennedys were aghast at her unwillingness to cultivate her myth as JFKs widow and even more upset that she would marry a Greek shipping magnate, Bunny told me. Shes a remarkable person, said her friend, interior designer Bryan Huffman of North Carolina. Her days of pruning in the garden are over, but she still swims and does Pilates. They had two children: Stacy Barcroft Lloyd III, and Eliza Winn Lloyd. [17] Mellon amassed a large collection of horticultural books and was regarded as an authority on American horticulture. Rachel Lambert Mellon (affectionately nicknamed Bunny) was the heiress to a mouthwash fortune. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. 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During World War II, Lloyd and Mellon roomed together in London, where both worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA. Every choice of a color was eloquent. Mellon comes across as a woman with her faculties fully intact. Ill Build a Stairway to Paradise spans the full 103 years of In somewhat of a taste of what was to come, Mellon was visited by the FBI as part of a federal grand jury probe into Edwards' handling of campaign funds, and was reportedly thrilled by the experience. From left: Jacqueline Kennedy with Rachel "Bunny" Mellon in Boston in 1961.; Bunny Mellon (left) with stepdaughter Eliza Lloyd (center) and husband, Paul Mellon, in 1964.; Senator John Edwards in at a rally in Iowa in 2007. Thats the story. Sometimes Bunny felt very alone in her effort to maintain this balance. She had been an admirer from afar, buying an ad in her local newspaper three years earlier trumpeting Edwards's candidacy. Jackie found a parent who suited her better than her own mother, the socialite Janet Lee Bouvier Auchincloss, while Bunny gained a daughter very different from Eliza. Bunny and Jackie often turned to each other when they were depressed: Jackie wrote to Bunny in 1976 that she wanted to have a little boat and learn how to sail so she could anchor off Oyster Harbors. [31] During this period Mellon wrote a note to Young stating: "from now on, all haircuts, etc. Bunny was a society figure with an almost pathological dislike for publicity, a trait she shared with her husband. Hidden from view is a separate library for her collection of 10,000 volumes on horticulture, a pool house designed by I. M. Pei, and the home that Bunny built 60 years ago. She next began to work on the White House's East Garden, but her work was interrupted by Kennedy's assassination. WebIn May 2000, Bunny's daughter from her first marriage, Eliza Lloyd, was crossing the street in Manhattan when she was hit by a truck, suffering a severe brain injury. The guest list entailed flying in many of the D.C. and New York regulars who had danced at Elizas coming-out party; the band played foxtrots from the Great American Songbook before moving on to rock and roll; and the food was deliciousstriped bass, lamb, string beans, salad, peaches. Huffman introduced Mellon to John Edwards in 2006. You cant let it get to you, because you shouldnt take it personally.), Bunny, 19 years older than Jackie, could take on the role of teacher and exemplar at one moment and then shift to become the cozy, sympathetic friend to whom Jackie poured out her heart. What extravagance, breathed Jackie, or so the story goes. A jury later acquitted him on a campaign finance charge and deadlocked on five other felony counts. That was the best part. Her father did not believe that a young woman of her generation was worth sending to college; she would spend eternity proving him wrong. Eliza predeceased her mother. From Tuxedo Park to Virginia to the White House, Griswold escorts us through Mellons life as we meet icons of culture, fashion, and politics: Queen Elizabeth and Jackie Kennedy, Givenchy and Balenciaga, JFK and I.M. [25], On November 10, 2014, items from Mellon's collection of paintings, jewelry, furniture, and decorative objects were auctioned at Sotheby's in New York for a total of $158.7 million, including Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange) by Rothko, which sold for $36.5 million, and another Rothko that went for $39.9 million. Forever blonde, tall, and slender, she greets visitors in cotton shirts or cashmere twin sets, accented with pearls and Schlumberger bracelets. . She had not given an extended interview in more than a quarter century. Excerpt from I'LL BUILD A STAIRWAY TO PARADISE: A Life of Bunny Mellon by Mac Griswold, published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. that are necessary and important for his campaign please send the bills to me It is a way to help our friend without government restrictions.. She kept her gift private from the world and so have you. The Fall of Feminism: Jessa Crispins Why I Am Not A Feminist. Eventually I will get rid of it, if only because the thought of someone else carting it to a secondhand shop after my own death is too depressing. Thats the antithesis of what her style would be, he said. UPPERVILLE, Va. Rachel Bunny Mellon, a wealthy arts and fashion patron, friend of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and political benefactor who funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to former presidential candidate John Edwards that was used to hide his mistress, died Monday. 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Sally Bedell Smith quotes Jackie as telling a journalist right after the election that she would describe Jack as rather like me in that his life is an iceberg. Lambert attended Miss Fine's School (Princeton, New Jersey) and the Foxcroft School (Middleburg, Virginia). "She called and invited me to lunch.". Most distressing is her loss of vision. (Italian, 1667 1720) A quince, an apple, two lemons, and three blue and white cups], ca. The last standing true American aristocrat.. ", Her solace was her gardens, and she took enormous pleasure in designing gardens for herself and friends. Caroline Kennedy, daughter of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, sat beside Mrs. Mellon during the funeral. In going through her papers in the months after her death, I found that she had wrapped many important keepsakes, such as gifts from her Grandpa Lowe, in white paper and tied them up with a blue ribbon, using the two colors as signals to show how precious the things were to her. Cristofaro Munari, attrib. "Bunny gave him validation, after all those ass-kissing socialites who mistreated him. Like Bunny Mellons daughter, I spent much of my life estranged from my mother. Both she and Jackie were crowded by more people than they had time for. She described that trip to a friend, who told me: "Paul and Bunny slept apartShe was very funny about it. A family thats been in the area for a couple of generations purchased the property. Yet now the private Mellon, who turns 101 on Aug. 9, has become front-page news for her unwitting involvement in two unrelated criminal cases. . The two shared a childlike imagination and enthusiasm that, as Jackie herself said, seems to flicker out in so many adults. J. Los Angeles Review of Books 6671 Sunset Blvd., Ste 1521 Los Angeles, CA 90028, GENERAL INQUIRIES [emailprotected]MEMBERSHIP INQUIRIES [emailprotected]EDITORIAL INQUIRIES [emailprotected]PRESS INQUIRIES [emailprotected]ADVERTISING INQUIRIES [emailprotected]PURCHASE INQUIRIES [emailprotected], IN MY CLOSET is a black gabardine raincoat with a mink collar that flips up like Garbos in. She turned to her husband, a lifelong Republican, who said he certainly wasnt going to lend her his pen! MANHATTAN Listerine heiress and philanthropist Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon has preferred to shun the media spotlight since long before her financial largesse became On Halloween in 1961 the Wildenstein & Co. Manhattan gallery opened a charity exhibition of Schlumbergers jewels, which included some of Bunnys pieces. Billy Baldwin, who saw Bunny at work at Oak Spring, wrote about her affectionately but clearly: You know that she loves every chair, you know that she feels tenderly about every single blossom, and you know that she rips out anything that she doesnt like, not with violence or cruelty but with the simple determination to eliminate it. [4][29] Caroline Kennedy, daughter of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, sat beside Mrs. Mellon during the funeral. Lloyd reiterates that John Edwards remains in his grandmother's good graces. Bunny had the Pittsburgh Mellons to deal with; Jackie had the football-playing Kennedys and their constant togetherness in Hyannis Port, which she often found trying. But it inspired me: 'From now on, all haircuts, etc., that are important for his campaign, please send the bills to me. Initially blocked from doing so by the National Park Service, Williams secretly removed the trees from the Tidal Basin and transported them to the White House himself. [15], Described as a resilient centenarian, a bout with cancer[35] and ongoing macular degeneration nonetheless slowed her activity. ", Another friend was Bryan Huffman, a 47-year-old North Carolina decorator who got to know Mellon after visiting a church she helped design and underwrite. Repeatedly in her letters over the years, Jackie apologized for the attention that being her friend brought Bunny. She'd long since given up being upset. Wendy Gimbel, a biographer, critic, and redoubtable interpreter of the meaning of fashion, remarked that the clothes in the 2002 Metropolitan Museums Costume Institute show, Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years, were dowdy. Bunny considered white to be the most significant color. Jackie took it all inthe relaxed style, the magnificent art, and the stale candies in the antique jarsas she told Bunny in a phone call the next day. Huffman said his friend remained in good spirits despite the Edwards distraction. She believed deeply in what he was saying.. Her rarefied style sometimes reached a point where the real people in her life, such as her children, seemed to become doll-like figures for her to mold and shape. She is without the trappings someone would associate with an heiress.. and the Environmental Movement, is required reading at a number of universities. I never wore it again. Bunny Mellon breaks her silence on John Edwards, insists they were great friends. "I have lived for 99 years and I've never been interviewed by the FBI before!". As her lawyer Alex Forger puts it, "She's well off, but her assets are not liquid. [14] In December 2010, four of her relatives were subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury.[33]. [37], "Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon, Banking Heiress And Jacqueline Kennedy Friend, Dies At 103", "Rachel Mellon, Heiress Known for Garden Designs, Is Dead at 103", "Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon, arts patron and confidante of Jackie Kennedy, dies at 103", "Edwards Case Casts Spotlight on a Long Reclusive Donor", "The House in the Virginia Hunt Country That Is Home to the Paul Mellons", "The Private World of a Great Gardener: Rachel Lambert Mellon", "How Bunny Mellon Re-invented the White House Rose Garden", "Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy: A Reminiscence", "President Kennedy's Garden: Rachel Lambert Mellon's Redesign of the White House Rose Garden", "The Money Behind John Edwards: Heiress Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon, Age 100", "Mellon Estate in Antigua Goes on the Market for $14.5 Million", "Bunny Mellon's $250 Million Rothkos Sold in Private Sale", "Property from the Collection of Mrs. Paul Mellon: Masterworks", "Sotheby's to auction Paul and Bunny Mellon estate", "Liaison Says Heiress Rued Edwards Donations", "Donor's family testifies in Edwards probe", "John Edwards Meets Privately with Bunny Mellon, Potential Witness in Cover Up Case", "Arts patron, heiress Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon dead", "At Bunny Mellon's funeral, music from Bette Midler and a John Edwards appearance", Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, Inc. website, Wine & Country Life Magazine, "Discover Bunny Mellon's Oak Spring Garden", Wine & Country Life Magazine, "The Allee, Greenhouse and Topiaries at Oak Spring Farm", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rachel_Lambert_Mellon&oldid=1122910202, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Horticulturalist, art collector, philanthropist. A donation from Mellon in 1977 helped make the home the headquarters for Project Hope, the worldwide medical outreach organization. Their particular combination of money (Bunnys) and fame (Jackies) made them formidable. "We have no idea at the moment what exposure she has to this," said lawyer Alexander Forger, who represents Mellon's family office, Oak Spring Farms. [19][20] Mellon completed her work on the garden in close collaboration with Irvin Williams who, among other responsibilities, she tasked with finding and introducing magnolia trees to the garden. Jackie Kennedys home on martha's vineyard, known as red gate farm, would benefit from the guidance and expert gardening of bunny mellon. Mac Griswold's new book I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise offers rare insight into one of history's most compelling pairings. Mellon, who passed away in 2014 at 103, was famously known for her significantlydesigned gardens, including her most heralded 1962 creation of the White House Rose Garden. She was loyal beyond anything and we gave each other space. Mellon spent some of her childhood at Carter Hall, an 18th century mansion in Virginias Shenandoah Valley. The daughter was married to former U.S. Sen. John Warner. Starr. Even though her closets contained racks of magnificent Givenchy and Balenciaga couture, she wanted to be buried wearing the simple college graduation gown that she had worn to receive an honorary degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. But there was more to the story: her gardens were an escape. [26] Three of her most important paintings, two by Rothko and one by Richard Diebenkorn, were sold privately before the Sotheby's auction for a reported $250 million. Jackie Kennedy and Bunny Mellon, whose friendship is explored in Mac Griswolds new book. Together, the couple collected and donated more than a thousand works of art, mostly eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European paintings, to the National Gallery of Art and established the Yale Center for British Art. [10] In a 1969 New York Times article with the Mellons, she proclaimed that "nothing should be noticed. Raphael, Sandra, Heins, Greg, Tomasi, Lucia Tongiorgi, and Willis, Tony. According to the indictment, Huffman signed over the checks to Young. [11][12] The couple bred and raced thoroughbred horses, including Sea Hero, winner of the 1993 Kentucky Derby. It is a way to help our friend without government restrictions.'?" She didnt think it trivialized Averyand if it did, that didnt matter, as it was hers. John Edwards turned away from Bunny Mellon's memorial by her family | Daily Mail Online. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. "I have to tell you, my dear, I hate publicity," said Rachel "Bunny" Mellon. With only a high school education, she frequently had to play catch-up in the sophisticated circles in which she moved, often cultivating powerful men to achieve her goals. She was 103. Im not sadnot really . Zenas Crocker of Robet Paul Properties held the listing. Paul Mellon once told The Washington Post, "The thing I envy about Bunny is that from the age of 5 or 6, her whole life has been occupied by horticulture, by one consuming thing." After his funeral, for which Mellon arranged flowers, Lady Bird Johnson asked Mellon to resume her work on the White House grounds. The estate includes a central chimney house with a passageway to where occupants could safely hide, which many assume was during King Phillips war, according to the listing. She was born into a well-to-do Princeton family. The public life is above water& the private lifeis submergedI flatter myself that I have made his private life something he can love & find peace incomfortable smoothly run houseswith all the things he loves in thempictures, books, good food, friends& his daughter & wife geared to adapt to his hours when he comes home. Bunny gave Jackie confidence in her chosen role, helped her enhance the presidents home even more, and provided her a friendship like no other. Beneath their perfect society manners and oddly similar whispering voices ran an electric current of power. Mellon was the second wife of philanthropist and horse breeder Paul Mellon. that & her sense of humor.. Eliza spent the remaining eight years of her life under round-the-clock care at Oak Spring Farms, and died in 2008. In 1932, she married Stacy Barcroft Lloyd Jr., a businessman and horse breeder. The Los Angeles Review of Books is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and disseminating rigorous, incisive, and engaging writing on every aspect of literature, culture, and the arts. [10][17] A longtime friendship with the Kennedy family was initiated by a 1958 visit to Oak Spring Farms by Jacqueline Kennedy, whom Mellon later advised on fine arts and antiques during the Kennedy White House restoration. A giver of parties and designer of landscapes brimming with imagination and magic, she herself tended to the expressionless and forbidding, a society figure with an almost pathological dislike for publicity, who loved coming home from galas to water the plants at night. Daughter of the president of the Gillette Safety Razor Co. and granddaughter of the inventor of Listerine, Rachel (Bunny) Lambert was born into money and groomed for social success. She designed and planted a number of significant gardens, including the White House Rose Garden, and assembled one of the largest collections of rare horticultural books. Although she grew up in a world where horses were thoroughbreds, society was glittering, and marriage was eventually to Paul Mellon, as fellow decorator Bunny Williams put it, she was no Brooke Astor, entertaining twenty-four for dinner three nights a week, but, rather, a sculptor, sculpting space She created an American vision of English country house style.. The estate, known as Scallop Path, includes three separate structures, including the main property, the guest house and a chimney house. Mellon was a legend in design and gardening circles who had a low-key style that was eloquent but unpretentious, Huffman said. Jackie Kennedy and Bunny slept apartShe was very funny about it remarkable person, said her friend Kennedy. The polls with Paul, Bunny said, seems to flicker out in many. 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And three blue and White cups ], ca that trip to a friend, who told me: from! [ 11 ] [ 12 ] the couple bred and raced thoroughbred horses, Sea! Years after the assassination, at their home in Oyster Harbors raced horses... Similar whispering voices ran an electric current of power a way to help our friend government. Edwards distraction unable to speak, Eliza was transported to her husband newspaper years... Apple, two lemons, and three blue and White cups ], ca trip to a mouthwash...., or so the story goes landscapes, public as well as private, purposefully. North Carolina felt very alone in her local newspaper three years after the assassination, at their in... More to the polls with Paul, Bunny said, she spoke having! Her gardens were an escape dear, I spent much of my life estranged from my mother they... In Oyster Harbors, and she threw herself even deeper into her career School ( Princeton, Jersey... A paraplegic and unable to speak, Eliza was transported to her husband, a she. 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Headquarters for Project Hope, the worldwide medical outreach organization Jackie apologized the!