Bunny considered white to be the most significant color. According to the indictment, Huffman signed over the checks to Young. While Mellon is leaving bequests to her family, the bulk of her estate will go to a foundation, financing a library and school for arborists. 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. Excerpt from I'LL BUILD A STAIRWAY TO PARADISE: A Life of Bunny Mellon by Mac Griswold, published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Mellon believed a ladys name should only appear in the newspaper three times: for her debut, her marriage and her obituary, Huffman said. In 2004 in the opening essay for the Metropolitan Museums exhibition Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who was Jackies friend and ally, wrote that underneath a veil of lovely inconsequence she developed a cool assessment of people and an ironical slant on life. "Bunny gave him validation, after all those ass-kissing socialites who mistreated him. 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. Jackie wore hers so often that the press dubbed them Jackie bracelets. But was a paint box filled with rubies, sapphires, and emeralds instead of pigments another Bunny gift? Sometimes Jackie became Bunnys advisor. Jackie Kennedys home on martha's vineyard, known as red gate farm, would benefit from the guidance and expert gardening of bunny mellon. 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. . These properties were sold in the years preceding her death. Ill Build a Stairway to Paradise spans the full 103 years of Bunny Mellons life. Mrs. Mellon had exquisite taste, and what Jackie admired most of all was the way she taught other people.". [10] In 2004, she expressed interest in presidential candidate John Edwards because he reminded her of President Kennedy, but when she called his campaign office with an offer to help, her name was not recognized and the call went unreturned. Bunny went on to sketch her friend as one who had a mischievous side& twinkle in her eye . 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. Write it nice, friendly, nongossipy. For a woman who spurns publicity, this has been a rough year. . 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. 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. With other estates on Antigua, Cape Cod, and Nantucket (the two Paris apartments and the New York townhouse have been recently sold), Mellon is experiencing that WASP nightmareliving on principal. [7][36] Her funeral was held at Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, which the Mellons had gifted to the community in 1960. Small wonder that Bunny and Jackie Kennedy, introduced in 1957, would become confidantes. Ill Build a Stairway to Paradise by Mac Griswold (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is available online and in stores now. "He would have been a great president," insists Mellon, who has been interviewed by the FBI but is not expected to testify. Her father did not believe that a young woman of her generation was worth sending to college; she would spend eternity proving him wrong. This could also lead her astray: late in life, hoping to try her hand at politics, she bet on the wrong horse with handsome John Edwards, only to find herself entangled in an unsavory state of affairs. . 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. I can't write, but I dictate, I talk to people. A self-taught botanist, Mellon was tapped by her friend Jacqueline Kennedy to design the White House Rose Garden. Beneath their perfect society manners and oddly similar whispering voices ran an electric current of power. For Bunnys 69th, Jackie gave her an illustrated edition of Emily Dickinsons poems. When Mellon became aware of the use of her funds for this purpose, she reportedly came to regret the donations, but maintained that Edwards "would have been a great president. "He and I were great friends. Her recent collection isWaiting for Charlie: Mercenary Soldiers, Failed States, and the Love That Means More Than Money. 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." 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. Lloyd, her grandson, says, "I don't think there's ever going to be a moment for her to sit back and reflect. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. They were friends with the Kennedys and entertained Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles. A donation from Mellon in 1977 helped make the home the headquarters for Project Hope, the worldwide medical outreach organization. Every choice of a color was eloquent. 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. Although charming, its hardly a match for the other treasures on those walls, but it was painted by Jackie and was therefore another precious reminder of their times together. The scale of Bunnys wealth meant she could indulge herself in over-the-top moments, as when she treated a magnificent Milton Avery painting that hung in her house on Nantucket as merely a snapshot of herself and her friend Jackie. "I wish I could have 10 minutes in a room with John Edwards to explain that he's doing nothing but tarnish her legacy and really taking advantage of her," says Thomas Lloyd, her grandson, who testified before the grand jury. Ill Build a Stairway to Paradise spans the full 103 years of For most of her 103 years, Rachel Bunny Lambert Mellon kept secret the intimate details of her life. He warned her that she should shun celebrity and stick to becoming a myth. No better armor than a watchful friend: Bunny Mellon quietly walks with Jackie Kennedy from Martin Luther King, Jr.s funeral at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, 1968. Tales straight out of A Thousand and One Nights, some true, some apocryphal, gathered around the pair and their friendship. [10][22], Mellon gathered a sizable collection of works by artist Mark Rothko, having purchased many of his 1950s works directly from his New York studio. Stepping up to the polls with Paul, Bunny said, she found she didnt have anything to write with. Mellon, a woman whose acquaintances and the press had led him to believe was distant and cold, was in fact warm & funny once he got to know her. A well-groomed young woman is trailing her, but Mellon seems miraculously able for a 99-year-old. Scarred by his parents' acrimonious divorce, Paul proved to be an emotionally remote husband with a wandering eye. Bunny made her debut in October 1929 and three years later married the socially connected Stacy Lloyd Jr. . 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. Jane Stanton Hitchcock says, "Jackie told me that she thought Bunny was a visual genius." [18] Mellon created more open space for public ceremonies and introduced American species of plants, as well as Magnolia soulangeana. A jury later acquitted him on a campaign finance charge and deadlocked on five other felony counts. "He's done a very good job of maintaining the sense that 'Bunny, I want to be your friend; Bunny, feel sorry for me in this predicament, we'll get through this together,'" says Lloyd. 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. She reportedly told friends the senator reminded her of John F. Kennedy, whose wife Jackie O. was a close friend, the Daily Beast reported. She attended Foxcroft, a northern Virginia boarding school. Pei, Audrey Hepburn, Richard Diebenkorn, Katharine Graham. WARRENTON, Va. Rachel "Bunny" Mellon left a small island to the Massachusetts Audubon Society, a library to an unspecified charity, jewelry to a former first daughter, and $20 million in cash along with artwork and real estate to Stacy B. Lloyd III, her son by her first marriage. Ever since she married Paul Mellon in 1948, she has been consumed by turning his Virginia farm into a magnificent showcase. "That's why I want to do this story now," I reply. 1700 Oil on canvas. 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.". 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. Crocker would not reveal who the buyers were, only that they hadseveral other Cape properties and are extremely private. According to Bunny, Jackie said coolly, Absolutely not. Lowell then said, Well, what are you going to do? Jackie answered him by saying, Well, weve got it all planned, and that was that.. [25] Proceeds from the sales benefited the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, a charitable entity established by Mellon in memory of her father. [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. [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. She had been an admirer from afar, buying an ad in her local newspaper three years earlier trumpeting Edwards's candidacy. Her first book, Coyotes and Town Dogs: Earth First! Then her daughter was fatally hit in a car accident, and she threw herself even deeper into her career. Bunny Mellon breaks her silence on John Edwards, insists they were great friends. 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