Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, the reclusive 103-year-old Listerine heiress who famously redesigned the White House’s Rose Garden for Jackie Kennedy, died Monday morning of natural causes at her estate in Upperville, Virginia.
“Had a great, long life,” said Alexander Forger, her longtime lawyer who met Mellon about 40 years ago through their mutual friend Jacqueline Kennedy. “That’s all.”
From Forbes:
She was very rich and extremely secretive, almost never appearing in public after her second husband Paul Mellon died in 1999. She inherited part of his $1.4 billion estate, but it was never clear exactly how much. Forbes investigated the fortune, which was wrapped up in a web of trusts and closely guarded by her confidants, but could not prove she was a billionaire.
Despite spending most of her life trying to avoid the spotlight she found herself embroiled in a front-page scandal in 2011 when it was revealed she funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars (referred to as “Bunny money”) to former presidential candidate John Edwards that was used to hide his mistress Rielle Hunter and their child during Edwards’ 2008 Democratic presidential bid.
From CBS news:
Mellon was a “legend in design and gardening circles” who had a low-key style that was eloquent but unpretentious, Huffman said.
“She’s not sitting around in velvet covered gold chairs. That’s the antithesis of what her style would be,” he said. “She is without the trappings someone would associate with an heiress.”
When she was around 5 years old, her father let her have a little garden at home, planting the seed for her lifelong love of horticulture, he said.
Mellon’s Oak Spring Garden Library, which houses her collection of rare books, manuscripts, works of art and other pieces relating to her hobbies, is one of the largest repositories of horticultural information and is visited by scholars worldwide.
Mellon also was known for her exquisite taste – both in fashion and in decorating.
Her wardrobe was created by Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga until he retired, at which time French designer Hubert de Givenchy took over fashioning everything she wore, according to a 2010 Vanity Fair article.
Her art collection included a Rothko reportedly worth $125 million.
Mellon spent some of her childhood at Carter Hall, an 18th century mansion in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. A donation from Mellon in 1977 helped make the home the headquarters for Project Hope, the worldwide medical outreach organization.
She attended Foxcroft, a northern Virginia boarding school.
She and Paul Mellon supported many philanthropic endeavors, but were also known to indulge. They reportedly had homes in Antigua, Paris, New York, Washington, Nantucket and Cape Cod, and a mile-long runway for their private jet. They were friends with the Kennedys and entertained Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. Until she neared 100 she practiced Pilates daily, which she learned from the master Joseph Pilates in the 1950s.
Through it all, she never sought publicity. Mellon believed a lady’s name should only appear in the newspaper three times: for her debut, her marriage and her obituary, Huffman said.
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