Word: mesta
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...that wealthy Perle Mesta was moving to Luxembourg to be the U.S. minister, something was missing in the capital's social life. Who would take her place as the No. 1 partygiver? Sweltering Washington, where bureaucrats are grateful for a drink or a dinner in the July heat, was anxious for an answer...
Last week Gwendolyn Cafritz, lithe, lynx-eyed wife of Washington Real Estate Millionaire Morris Cafritz (rhymes with "Say Fritz") stepped forward to take Perle Mesta's place. From her luxurious mansion on Foxhall Road, Mrs. Cafritz issued invitations to a mint julep and steak party this week at the Cafritz estate. The guest list, if all showed up, was almost as impressive as a Mesta fiesta. Among those invited: Vice President Barkley, the John Snyders, the Clark Cliffords, Generals Omar Bradley and Hoyt Vandenberg, a hatful of ambassadors and Cabinet members, and General Dwight D. Eisenhower...
...Mesta, well-heeled oil and machine-tool heiress (TIME, March 14), raised Democratic campaign funds and stuck by Harry Truman last year when the canapes were scarce in Democratic circles. But she really hadn't expected any reward, she said, "not one single thing." "It would be a lot easier to stay in Washington and I'd have a lot more fun," she told a columnist. "But I think this post is an advancement for women and I ought to accept...
Although social life ordinarily is pretty dull in Luxembourg, there was nothing to stop Perle from throwing some of her big parties there (to entertain, she will have to add considerable of her own money to the $15,000 or $20,000 salary of a Minister). Since Mrs. Mesta is a widow, protocol officers were spared one problem: when it comes to table-setting, there is no place to put a Minister's husband...
...Senate was expected to confirm Mrs. Mesta with little delay (she had been hostess to plenty of them), so she quickly set about preparing to leave for Europe. She closed "Uplands," her fashionable Foxhall Road mansion, ordered the Mesta mansion at Newport shut up, and moved into Washington's Sulgrave Club. There was one annoying hitch: A shipment of costly fabrics containing materials for the ministerial wardrobe was pilfered en route to Washington, and even the FBI, when called in, couldn't find it. But Perle was not fazed. "It's too hot to think about clothes...