Rachel Lambert Mellon

Rachel Lowe Lambert, nicknamed Bunny by her mother, was the eldest child of Gerard Barnes Lambert, president of the Gillette Safety Razor Company and a founder of Warner–Lambert, and his wife, Rachel Parkhill Lowe. Her paternal grandfather, chemist Jordan Lambert, was the inventor of Listerine, which was later marketed by her father. She had a brother and a sister: Gerard Barnes Lambert, Jr. (1912–1947; married Elsa Cover), who died in a 1947 plane crash, and Lily McCarthy (1914–2006; married twice, to William Wilson Fleming and John Gilman McCarthy, respectively). Lambert attended Miss Fine's School (Princeton, New Jersey) and the Foxcroft School (Middleburg, Virginia). Her parents divorced in 1933, and both subsequently remarried. On November 25, 1932, Lambert married Stacy Barcroft Lloyd Jr. of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, at Trinity Church, Princeton. He served in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. They divorced in 1948. They had two children: Stacy Barcroft Lloyd III, and Eliza Winn Lloyd. Eliza predeceased her mother. Lambert and her first husband became close friends of the banking heir and art collector Paul Mellon and his first wife, Mary Conover, who died of an asthma attack in 1946. After Lambert divorced Lloyd, she and Paul Mellon were married on May 1, 1948. The couple bred and raced thoroughbred horses, including Sea Hero, winner of the 1993 Kentucky Derby. Mellon was long known for her discretion and limited public exposure. She offered only a handful of interviews to journalists in her lifetime. ==Gardening career==

after Mellon's landscaping Although she had no formal training, Mellon read widely in horticulture and made contributions to several landmark gardens. Her interests in gardening were first cultivated while watching Olmsted Brothers gardeners tend the formal gardens at "Albemarle", her family's Princeton estate. Mellon amassed a large collection of horticultural books and was regarded as an authority on American horticulture. Her work was strongly influenced by French gardeners André Le Nôtre and Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked Mellon to redesign the White House Rose Garden. Mellon created more open space for public ceremonies and introduced American species of plants, as well as Magnolia soulangeana. She next began to work on the White House's East Garden, but her work was interrupted by Kennedy's assassination. After his funeral, for which Mellon arranged flowers, Lady Bird Johnson asked Mellon to resume her work on the White House grounds. 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. 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. 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. In France, Mellon created a landscape design for the home of Hubert de Givenchy and assisted with a restoration of the potager du Roi in Versailles. ==Wealth and collections==

As most of her assets were invested in trusts, it was difficult to estimate Mellon's wealth, but her family and husband's fortune and fixed assets suggest she was exceptionally wealthy. She maintained homes in Antigua, Nantucket and Oyster Harbors, Cape Cod, two apartments in Paris, and a townhouse in New York City. These properties were sold in the years preceding her death. Her main residence, Oak Spring Farms, was a estate in Virginia, that had its own long airstrip to accommodate her Falcon 2000. The painting measured 10 by 15 feet. 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. 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. ==Honors==

• International Best Dressed List (1975) • Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres • The Royal Horticultural Society's The Veitch Memorial Medal (1987) • The Henry Shaw Award • American Horticultural Society Landscape Design Award ==Later years==

Mellon's second husband, Paul Mellon, died in 1999, aged 91. 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. Eliza spent the remaining eight years of her life under round-the-clock care at Oak Spring Farms, and died in 2008. Caroline Kennedy, daughter of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, sat beside Mrs. Mellon during the funeral. Mellon was a long-time Democrat whose political views often conflicted with those of her husband. She was an early financier of Edwards' 2008 Democratic primary run, offering an initial US$1 million commitment to his campaign, and eventually contributing more than $3.5 million to organizations supporting his candidacy. During this period Mellon wrote a note to Young stating: "from now on, all haircuts, etc. 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." The funds were secretly used to support Rielle Hunter, a campaign videographer with whom Edwards had an extra-marital affair and child. 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." On June 3, 2011, Edwards was indicted on using campaign funds to help cover up an affair and pregnancy during the 2008 presidential campaign. Just one week prior to his indictment, in late May 2011, Edwards visited Mellon at her Upperville estate. Following his indictment, the judge forbade Edwards to speak with any potential witnesses. In 2010, it was reported that Mellon had lost $5.75 million to investment adviser and convicted Ponzi scheme operator Kenneth I. Starr. ==Death==

Described as a resilient centenarian, a bout with cancer and ongoing macular degeneration nonetheless slowed her activity. She was forced to give up gardening by 2011, although she continued to swim, do Pilates, and give the rare interview. Her funeral was held at Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville, which the Mellons had gifted to the community in 1960. 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'". Her grandson, Stacy Lloyd IV, remembered Mellon as "Granbunny" and how she taught him to find beauty in everything. Her friend Bette Midler performed her hit song The Rose. ==References==