An Heiress, Prosecutor, Premier & Operative

on March 26, 2014

There have been several notable deaths this past week of distinguished persons who were key players in momentous but now distant times. One was Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, remarkably age 103, accomplished horticulturist, confidante to Jackie Kennedy, heiress of the Listerine fortune, widow of philanthropist Paul Mellon, and underwriter of disgraced John Edwards’ 2008 presidential campaign, including subsidies, as Mellon later learned to her regret, for Edwards’ mistress and love child. In her late 90s at the time, reportedly she ruefully explained she was always charmed by handsome men.

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Mellon’s second husband was son of the great financier and 1920s Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Young Paul Mellon had stood next to FDR in 1941 when dedicating the National Gallery of Art, built with his father’s largesse and filled with his father’s art. Paul would later underwrite the museum’s modernistic East Gallery. Bunny advised her friend First Lady Jackie Kennedy on art and designed the White House rose garden. They remained friends for the duration, often meeting at the Mellons’ expansive estate in the Virginia hunt country, which Kennedy relished as a dedicated horsewoman.

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I often drive by the undulating stone walls of the Mellons’ vast acreage. And I especially admire their gift to the historic village of Upperville, an exquisite stone sanctuary resembling a medieval French country church that is Trinity Episcopal, an active parish. A stunning stained glass window there is dedicated to Paul and Bunny. He is buried in back of the church, in a simple graveyard overlooking the bucolic Piedmont. So too is his father, with an understated stone belying his great wealth and power. Presumably Bunny will join them there.

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Just a bit younger than Mellon was Judge Lawrence Walsh, age 102, controversial Iran-Contra investigator for 7 long years. Like ferociously myopic Police Inspector Javert in Les Miserables, Walsh relentlessly sought to implicate Presidents Reagan and Bush I, instead settling for lesser figures like Lt. Colonel Oliver North and eventually former Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger. Walsh’s announcing Weinberger’s indictment only days before the 1992 presidential election likely helped ensure Bill Clinton’s victory. All of Walsh’s targets were either acquitted or got presidential pardons, despite an investigation costing over $40 million.

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Speaking to a lawyers’ prayer breakfast during the investigation, Walsh spoke of the Biblical Moses’ relentless dedication to truth no matter the years or cost. Like Moses, he pledged to barrel forward with his own pursuit of justice and truth, irrespective of popularity or, evidently, costs. Afterwards, as Walsh would recount, Justice Lewis Powell shook his hand, and shook his head, simply saying, “Oh, Ed,” before walking away quietly. No doubt. Javert cannot be distracted or deterred.

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Like the pursuer of Jean Valjean, Walsh was supremely dedicated and capable but lacked prudence and perspective. His earlier long career was illustrious, starting with his work for Tom Dewey the prosecutor, New York governor and twice failed presidential candidate. Walsh was deputy attorney general in the Eisenhower Administration, presiding over civil rights battles and persuading Ike not to ban from public mails D.H. Lawrence’s risqué Lady Chatterley’s Lover, even handing the President a copy with the saucy parts annotated. Walsh’s funeral is reportedly next week at First Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma City.

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There was a stately funeral this week in Spain for its first democratically elected prime minister after longtime dictator Francisco Franco. Adolfo Suarez, age 81, had become premier at only age 43 in 1976, a year after Franco’s death. He had served in Franco’s regime but transitioned Spain into democracy, freeing political prisoners and legalizing banned political parties, including the Communists, while governing from the moderate right. Unlike some of his successors, he kept faith with Spain’s Catholic heritage.

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By 1981 Suarez was Spain’s then longest serving democratic leader. He was on the Parliament floor when clownish army officers, looking like the Pirates of Penzance, their leader waving his revolver, barged in to attempt a military coup. While others hid under their desks, Suarez remembered his dignity and remained on his feet, confronting the intruders. His partner in democratizing Spain, King Juan Carlos, helped defeat the coup with a televised denunciation. The King later elevated Suarez to a dukedom and prominently participated in his funeral.

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Serving almost as an American style political duke across 8 decades, Texas operative Robert Strauss died age 95. National Democratic Party Chairman in the 1970s, U.S. Trade Representative and Special Envoy to the Middle East under Jimmy Carter and ambassador to Russia under Bush I, Strauss had campaigned for young congressional candidate Lyndon Johnson in the 1930s and later worked for Governor John Connally in the 1960s. Strauss’ mother expected her son to become Texas’ first Jewish governor, but Strauss preferred appointive office and working behind the scenes. He was a masterful deal maker, negotiator and lobbyist. His rapport with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin reputedly smoothed the path for the 1979 Camp David Peace Accord. Active until the end, and proud of his productive career in politics and business, he recently published his memoir.

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Strauss, Suarez, Walsh and Mellon performed their roles on the stage at key moments, at times providentially, if in zigzagged ways. They now have gone the way of all human flesh.

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