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. [28] Shortly thereafter, in May 2000, her daughter Eliza was hit by a truck while crossing a Manhattan street, causing a severe brain injury and full-body paralysis. Mellon was a legend in design and gardening circles who had a low-key style that was eloquent but unpretentious, Huffman said. With love and inexpressible gratitude for all the joy and help you have always given me. She was 103 years old. Mellon, who passed away in 2014 at 103, was famously known for her significantly designed gardens, including her most heralded 1962 creation of the White In it she wrote: Bunnyon your birthday. One small but bracing example that Bunny related to me was about the renowned poet Robert Lowell, who ran into the two women one afternoon Bunny didnt say whereand asked, Could I have dinner with you girls? clearly imagining that of course they would want to do so, as almost anyone else might have. She was eulogized by her friend Frank Langella, who described himself as "a rough Jersey kid" whom Mellon taught "how to listen, dress, never be vulgar, respect all people, be humble, avoid hubris, write thank-you notes, never boast, be curious and 'above all, be loyal'". 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. . She described that trip to a friend, who told me: "Paul and Bunny slept apartShe was very funny about it. The estate, known as Scallop Path, includes three separate structures, including the main property, the guest house and a chimney house. You dont even have to talk. These resources reveal how many of her designs were derived from fairy tales. [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. 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. According to Crocker, Lloyd was thrilled the buyers were interested in preserving the home as it is. 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. (Italian, 1667 1720) A quince, an apple, two lemons, and three blue and white cups], ca. She was 103. Jackie Onassis, 19 years her junior, died in 1994; Paul Mellon died five years later after a lingering illness. [14] In December 2010, four of her relatives were subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury.[33]. As the second wife of financier Paul Mellon, she helped him amass a renowned art collection, hundreds of works ranging from Czannes to Rothkos, either donated to the National Gallery in Washington or still hanging on her walls. "Bunny gave him validation, after all those ass-kissing socialites who mistreated him. [25] Proceeds from the sales benefited the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, a charitable entity established by Mellon in memory of her father. Her art collection included a Rothko reportedly worth $125 million. Forever blonde, tall, and slender, she greets visitors in cotton shirts or cashmere twin sets, accented with pearls and Schlumberger bracelets. Huffman said his friend remained in good spirits despite the Edwards distraction. 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. Through it all, she never sought publicity. . 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. Rachel Lambert "Bunny" Mellon, who died at age 103 on March 17 of this year, was renowned as a style icon, an influential garden designer (she helped plan the White (French, ca. ", Mellon and her late husband Paul recommended Starr to friends, and she is mortified that they have suffered, saying, "The worse thing is the people he stole money from." Yet when Sam Kasten of Nantucket Looms, a company that wove custom fabrics for her, wrote her that his visit to the Garden Library at Oak Spring was a life-changing event, she called him in tears. Like Bunny Mellons daughter, I spent much of my life estranged from my mother. Ironically, Bunnys own interiors and her landscapes, public as well as private, were purposefully designed not to draw attention to themselves. "I have to tell you, my dear, I hate publicity," said Rachel "Bunny" Mellon. Rendered a paraplegic and unable to speak, Eliza was transported to her mother's farm for round-the-clock care, surviving for eight years. But Mellon struck up new life-affirming friendships with much younger, artistic men. Susan Zakin was born in New York City, where she attended the Brearley School and Columbia Universitys Graduate School of Journalism. In her patrician voice she adds, "I'll have to put my trust in you and God. The 35-year-old Lloyd, a Washington investment adviser, adds, "As I explained to the jury, imagine a very handsome man who is well liked and respected, and there are two women vying for his affections.". Bunny and Jackie dined at Johnnys small clapboard house on East 92nd Street before heading to the gala, the proceeds of which would support the preservation of Newport, Rhode Islands trove of 18th- and 19th-century architecture. Every item on this page was chosen by a townandcountrymag editor. Lloyd, her grandson, says, "I don't think there's ever going to be a moment for her to sit back and reflect. . Only two years before Jackie won her settlement, Paul Mellon, for the first time and thanks to Forger, had settled an annual $500,000 on Bunny, allegedly for charity, meaning that she no longer had to ask her husband for every cent of his money she spent. All Rights Reserved. Letitia Baldrige, Jackie's White House social secretary, recalls, "They were very close. Tales straight out of A Thousand and One Nights, some true, some apocryphal, gathered around the pair and their friendship. I can't write, but I dictate, I talk to people. Ever since she married Paul Mellon in 1948, she has been consumed by turning his Virginia farm into a magnificent showcase. Bunny Lloyd made a condolence call; Mellon wrote that she was "very kind and understanding over my distress." Im not sadnot really . Mellon comes across as a woman with her faculties fully intact. As an adult, her fluency with pencil and ink led her to illustrate her letters, underlining the emotions they expressed. She's a classic, the epitome of a society that is no longer with us.". After his funeral, for which Mellon arranged flowers, Lady Bird Johnson asked Mellon to resume her work on the White House grounds. For a woman who spurns publicity, this has been a rough year. A previous auction of Mellon possessions brought in $218.1 million in 2014 for the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation. She was loyal beyond anything and we gave each other space. I don't like complicated people." Mellon spent some of her childhood at Carter Hall, an 18th century mansion in Virginias Shenandoah Valley. in 2005. Tiffany & Co.s Pierce McGuire recalled that Mrs. Mellon described how she and Schlumberger had collaborated on the design for his famous paillonn enamel bangle and that she had given Jackie the first one. Through it all, she remains an enthusiastic defender of the former North Carolina senator. [31] During this period Mellon wrote a note to Young stating: "from now on, all haircuts, etc. In turn, after 1979, when Jackie bought Red Gate Farm on over three hundred acres on Marthas Vineyard, Bunny cleaned up and edited the straggling old farm-scape without overmanaging it and guided Jackie to the well-known architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen, who designed a plain, cedar-shingled Cape Cod house. Her interests in gardening were first cultivated while watching Olmsted Brothers gardeners tend her family's New Jersey home. [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. I want to come back. Another note from Jackie that Bunny inserted into one of her little blue daily datebooks went the other way, with Jackie comforting her friend about some problem and telling her, Dont worry, we will just beat the world back again., When in 1989 Jackie looked back at their years as friends, she wrote, Ever since Ive known you (33 years ago this spring) you have meant as much to me as any person in my life. Thanking Bunny for her love and care, her wise and strong support, and for all she had meant to the Kennedy children, Jackie closed with, I want you to be as happy as you make me.. The gardens carefully designed by the late Mellon, include flower gardens, herb and vegetable gardens. West, chief usher at the White House during the Kennedy administration, watched Jackie at play with her children on the South Lawn and observed that she was so happy, so abandoned, so like a little girl who had never grown up. Billy Baldwin, albeit a shameless gusher about clients he loved, accurately described the same quality in Bunny when he wrote that one of the incredibly rare qualities of this incredibly rare woman is her ability to empathize with anothers enthusiasmsat least with enthusiasms like his own. 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. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. As society bandleader Peter Duchin says, "Bunny is a person with wonderful taste. In Jackies case, it was her main article of faith that a womans job was to raise the children, and if she made a mess of it, the rest of what she did amounted to nothing. Her father did not believe that a young woman of her generation was worth sending to college; she would spend eternity proving him wrong. Between all buildings are eight separate fireplaces. All Rights Reserved. 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. More prosaically, Jackie and Bunnys shared foundation of WASP taste and attitudes included a dedication (an idealized postWorld War I preoccupation) to husband and home, an attitude that reached its apogee in America in the 1950s. 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