WWTBAM Bored

Sorry to hear about Gloria Vanderbilt passing away but she did live a long life. My cousin (the CEO of CHOP) and I both worked the party when we met her. Our grandmother was the housekeeper/chef at the estate next to Jackie O's family estate. The house she worked was called Broadlawns. Beautiful "summer cottage' at the entrance to Newport Harbor. They would have an event when all the Newport elite would bring the horses and carriages to one of the houses (Carriage Day if I remember correctly) and they all parked on the lawns near the water. Junebug had gotten approval to do a fun picnic style lunch from the owner, Mrs Casey. So there were baskets for everyone as they went down the line where we would put stuff in each basket. I was in charge of putting splits of white wine in each basket and was running out. I looked up to the next person to say it might be a minute and it was Gloria Vanderbilt. Pretty recognizable because her jean line was on TV all the time then. So technically, I served her white wine.

Cool!

Her aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, who tried to prove her mother was unfit to take care of her which resulted in a sensational trial, was the mother of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, who fathered a child, Neil “Sonny” Winston Fontaine, with Evan-Burrows Fontaine, my 4th cousin 2x removed. I talked with Sonny several times and he invited me to visit him at his home in Augusta, Georgia during the Masters Golf Tournament as his home was on the course. Unfortunately, he became ill and died in 2010 before I had time to get down there.

Evan had a quite interesting life: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan-Burrows_Fontaine