The International Herald Tribune Leonore Annenberg, doyenne of protocol, dies at 91 By Robert D. Mcfadden Thursday, March 12, 2009
Leonore Annenberg, the society doyenne who was President Ronald Reagan's first chief of protocol and who, with her late husband, the ambassador and publisher Walter Annenberg, gave away billions to philanthropic causes, died early Thursday in Rancho Mirage, California, where she had a home. She was 91. Her death, at Eisenhower Medical Center, was of natural causes, according to a family spokeswoman, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Annenberg had been chairwoman and president of the Annenberg Foundation, based outside Philadelphia, since her husband's death in October 2002. The foundation has given away $4.2 billion to cultural, educational and medical institutions. Forbes magazine estimated her fortune at $1.7 billion. Born into wealth, married to men with liquor and publishing empires, Annenberg lived on a grand scale, with baronial estates, a ranch, a ski lodge and art-filled apartments. Her friends, who called her Lee, were presidents, movie stars, royalty and the cream of society. A porcelain-skinned, meringue-blonde hostess, she entertained lavishly, gave fortunes to causes — and might never have had a real job had it not been for her old friend Ronnie. Not long after his inauguration in 1981, Reagan nominated Annenberg as the United States chief of protocol, with the rank of ambassador, requiring confirmation by the Senate. She sailed through on a 96-to-0 vote and rolled up her Bill Blass sleeves. "It's the first paying job I've ever had," Annenberg said in taking the $50,112-a-year post with the U.S. State Department. But being envoy for etiquette, she discovered, entailed a lot more than greeting foreign dignitaries with a smile and advising the president how to address a viscount. She soon learned about coordinating every minute of the visits of foreign leaders, arranging White House ceremonies, representing the government at diplomatic meetings, managing the guest villa called Blair House, planning for and accompanying the president on travels abroad, accrediting foreign ambassadors and performing scores of other diplomatic tasks. All her life she had been a good organizer and had moved comfortably among heads of state, captains of industry and Hollywood stars. But she was a headstrong and unorthodox ambassador, and soon ran into headwinds. Not long after taking charge, she removed several staff members, including a favored son of the actors James and Pamela Mason, and there were complaints in the White House. Annenberg astonished Washington by inviting diplomats to dinners at her own expense at Blair House, appearing in stunning gowns by Adolfo or Jean Louis. And when her picture, curtsying to Prince Charles at Andrews Air Force Base, splashed across the front pages of hundreds of newspapers, some commentators said it was unseemly in a democracy. The last straw was a presidential trip to Egypt for the funeral of the assassinated president, Anwar El-Sadat. Normally, the protocol chief would have handled the arrangements, but they were taken over by the White House. Annenberg resigned after 11 months in office, saying she wanted to spend more time with her husband. She resumed life at Inwood, the couple's 18-room, 13-acre, or 5-hectare, Georgian estate at Wynnewood, Pennsylvania; at Sunnylands, the their 240-acre winter compound at Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs; at their ski lodge in Sun Valley, Idaho; at their palatial Manhattan apartment and, when in Washington, at a Jefferson Hotel suite. The Annenbergs, who said they were partners in philanthropy, lavished money on charities, much of it through the Annenberg Foundation, which was established in 1989. Schools, libraries, hospitals, theaters, museums and public television stations were among the recipients. Annenberg inherited $2 billion, succeeded her husband as chairman and president of the foundation, became a trustee emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was on the boards of the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Orchestra and other organizations. On her husband's death in 2002, the $1 billion Annenberg art collection was given to the Metropolitan Museum. She received many awards, but was especially pleased in 2004 when Queen Elizabeth II named her an honorary Commander of the British Empire for contributions to British-American relations. There was a back story. In 1969, when President Richard Nixon named her husband ambassador to Britain, the British press (like the U.S. one) was unreceptive, calling him a pompous businessman with political connections and no diplomatic skills. But Mrs. Annenberg almost single-handedly turned British opinion around, not with lavish parties, but with a project that won acclaim. She renovated Winfield House, the 35-room ambassador's residence in London, for under $1 million. The dowdy old Regent's Park manse acquired Chippendale tables with inlaid satinwood, Lowestoft china, Ming chests, and, from the Annenberg collections, three Monets, two Gauguins, five Cézannes, two Van Goghs, three Renoirs and a Toulouse-Lautrec. It was a typical Lee Annenberg performance, friends said. Annenberg was born Leonore Cohn in New York on Feb. 20, 1918. Her father, Maxwell, was a producer for Columbia Pictures, founded by his brother, the legendary Harry Cohn. She grew up in California and graduated from Stanford in 1940. After a brief marriage to Belden Katleman, the son of a Southern California family that had made its fortune in parking lots and real estate, she married Lewis Rosenstiel, the founder of Schenley Industries. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1951, she married Mr. Annenberg, who had been divorced from Veronica Dunkelman in 1950. He owned The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News, radio and TV stations, Seventeen magazine and TV Guide. He sold the newspapers for $55 million in 1969 and the magazines for $3.2 billion in 1988, when he retired to his philanthropies, including the M.L. Annenberg Schools of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California. Annenberg is survived by a sister, Judith Wolf; a daughter from her first marriage, Diane Deshong, of Beverly Hills; a daughter from her second marriage, Elizabeth Kabler, of New York; a stepdaughter, Wallis Annenberg, of Los Angeles; seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Annenberg loved to entertain, especially at Sunnylands, a 32,000-square-foot, Spanish-style home in Rancho Mirage featuring desert hues and stunning porcelains and jades scattered about with careful abandon. The estate includes a golf course, tennis courts, a swimming pool and other amenities. Nixon retreated from the Watergate scandal to Sunnylands. Queen Elizabeth came for lunch, and Prince Charles was an occasional weekender. Frank and Barbara Sinatra were married there. Regular guests included Gerald and Betty Ford, Gregory and Veronique Peck, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Sammy Davis Jr. Ronald and Nancy Reagan often spent New Year's there. Annenberg believed the right guests were vital to a hostess's success. "The key ingredients are first of all to have interesting people," she said. "Then you try to put together an ambiance of good food and attractive table settings. But all of that would be unimportant if you didn't have interesting people." --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "World News Now Discussion List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wnndl?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
