Resort Life: Chapter XXVIII, 1965-1966

July, 1965. Northeast Harbor, Maine. "Philadelphia on the Rocks" savors its Down East saltwater feasts without table settings and place cards.

Resort Life: Chapter XXVIII, 1965-1966
Sicily, Ischia, Northeast Harbor, Fishers Island, and Palm Beach
By Augustus Mayhew

Ellen Glendinning Ordway gave up the grandeur of Newport for the rustic pleasures of Down East. For her, since the passing of her husband Lou Ordway, the comforts of being close to family and old friends held more appeal than the endless rounds of golf and tennis matches. So, Ellen sold the Barclay Square oceanfront house in Newport and bought a rambling two-story cottage in Northeast Harbor.

But before unpacking the lobster forks, we rejoin Ellen and Gertrude Sanford Legendre in their trek through Italy following a stay with Tom and Nonie Schippers in Spoleto. After Pompeii, they headed to Sicily's magnificent ruins and secluded resorts. Then, to the Marina di Ischia where they boarded the Westward,Drayton "Draidie" Cochran's schooner. As you probably recall, Cochran's son John was married to Nonie's sister Susie Phipps.

Back home, Ellen, along with her dogs, Jim and Pamela, settled in to Mt. Desert's Red Book before heading back to Newport where the moving vans were waiting. Then, a stop at Chocomount on Fishers Island with Gert Legendre before returning to Palm Beach.

June 1965
Sicily

Palermo. Gertrude Legendre waiting for the car … and waiting. "Our car is the last one off the boat."

"Cargo is loaded onto painted wagons and decorated mules."

After everything else was carted off, the Legendre-Ordway VW wagon was the last vehicle off the ship.

Grand Hotel Villa Igiea. Salia Belmonte, Palermo. "We spend three days here at this beautiful villa on the sea.

Grand Hotel Villa Igiea. "The view from our room."

"Gertrude trying to paint the view."

Agrigento. Valle dei Templi, Temple of Concordia. 440-430, BC. From Palermo, Gertrude and Ellen drove 120 kms. across the island to Agrigento on the south coast.

A goat herder holds back his flock on the road to Siricusa.

A Sicilian express wagon makes a delivery.

Palma di Montechiaro.

11 June 1965

11 June 1965. An Italcable from Tom Evans in Florence.

Viale Paradiso, Siricusa. Teatro Greco. 5th century, BC.

Taormina.

Taomina Mare. Villa Saint'Andrea. "We like it here so much, we stayed several days.

Taomina Mare. Villa Saint'Andrea.

Palermo to Naples ferry. "Here we go again …"

Naples. Hotel Excelsior. "We stayed here before boarding the boat to Ischia to visit Draidie Cochran."

Ischia

Ischia harbor.

Westward, Oyster Bay. Drayton Cochran's 125-foot staysail schooner with 7,000-feet of sail area docked at Ischia.

Aboard the Westward. Drayton Cochran (1909-1987) and Gertrude Legendre. From a long-established New York-North Shore-Palm Beach family, Cochran's mother Mabel Taylor added marriages to Prince Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst as well as James Cameron Clark, following her divorce from sportsman Gifford Cochran. Drayton Cochran was involved in marine archeology in the Mediterranean for various museums, exploring sites of underwater Roman, Greek and Venetian shipwrecks. Later, he donated the Westward to the Woods Hole Institute. In 1960, Cochran's son John, from a previous marriage to Margaret "Mardie" Lawrence, married Susie Phipps.

Saville Ryan. The great-granddaughter of tycoon Thomas Fortune Ryan, Saville Ryan's father Theodore S. Ryan served as a state senator from Connecticut.

Gifford Cochran, age two, named for his grandfather and whose uncle was also Gifford Cochran, with his father Drayton Cochran. Today, Gifford Cochran heads up GWC Design in Bozeman.

Ischia. Ellen Ordway, Gifford W. Cochran, Annmarie Menz Cochran (1922-2010), and Drayton Cochran. Following her divorce from Worthington Johnson, Menz married Drayton Cochran, developing her talent as a painter and jewelry designer as they sailed around the world.

Ischia. Annmarie Cochran, Gifford Cochran, Drayton Cochran, and Gertrude Legendre.

24 June 1965
Rome to Newport

June 1965
Chew-Wanamaker wedding
Chestnut Hill

Anne Chew married John Rodman Wanamaker. Ellen's niece Nina Cooke Emlen was the maid of honor.

9 July 1965
Northeast Harbor

"My new cozy summer place."

Borderlea, Northeast Harbor, Maine.

The flower and vegetable garden at Borderlea.

The porch at Borderlea.

Borderlea.

Northeast Harbor Swim Club

Gay Robb-Smith, Jane Scott, "Kaa" (Katherine Thompson) Wood, and James Cromwell (1896-1990). In 1967, Kaa Wood made tragic headlines when she was found bludgeoned to death in her Chestnut Hill mansion only months after her brother James Thompson, the Thai "Silk King and former CIA director in Bangkok, went missing and was never found. Despite an in-depth investigation, no clues were ever uncovered as to who killed her. Four years later, her son, his mother's principal heir, committed suicide. Perhaps best known for his marriages to Delphine Dodge and Doris Duke, James Cromwell's mother Eva Stotesbury was Philadelphia's legendary "last of the dowagers." His sister Louise Cromwell Brooks' crossed-swords wedding to General Douglas MacArthur, although a highlight of the 1922 season in Palm Beach, ended in a Reno divorce six years later.

Mrs. Lippincott and "Tubby" Jackson.

Gay Robb-Smith and Jane Scott.

Laura Wayne Pepper.

Josie Hatfield.

Laura Pepper with her grandson Monty Lewis.

George Garrett and George Evelyn Harrison.

Augusta Harrison.

Suzanne Whitman.

"Bob and Edie Huntington come for a visit."

Edie and Bob Huntington arrive from Palm Beach aboard the Fei-Seen.

Ethel Garrett and Edie Huntington aboard the Fei-Seen.

Edie Huntington and Pixie Glendinning.

Laura Pepper.

Hallett Johnson. In 1950, Ellen's niece Mary-Ellen "Melon" Cooke married Hallett Johnson, the son of a career diplomat who, among his many foreign posts, was US Ambassador to Costa Rica.

Mary Ellen "Melon" Cooke Johnson was Ellen Glendinning Ordway's niece.

Hallett Johnson III.

"We visit the Grassi House in Seal Harbor."

Ettore Grassi House, Seal Harbor. Lucius Ordway Frazer.

Grassi House, Seal Harbor.

Labor Day weekend, 1965

"A picnic with Boo and Luke Hopkins."

Kitty "Boo" Hopkins and Luke Hopkins. Hopkins was chairman of the Maryland National Bank.

Laura Pepper.

16 September 1965

Western Union Telegram. George and Augusta Harrison have their first child, "Gussie."

Chocomount
Fishers Island

Gertrude Legendre peruses Ellen Ordway's photograph collection.

Ron Balcom and Lulu Balcom with their "catch of the day.".

The Balcom's catch was the main course for dinner.

Hope Haines and Georgie Rutherford.

Lulu Balcom, Georgie Rutherfurd, and Hope Haines.

"Lulu and Ron with yet another catch of the day."

September 1965
Newport

"The Newport house has sold and the moving vans arrive … some things are heading to Northeast Harbor, others back to Palm Beach."

One Barclay Square, Newport. Moving day at the Ordway cottage.

September 1965
Palm Beach

"The Hoopla of Café Society," Palm Beach Daily News. A Lorelle Hearst column explores "Café Society.".

1 November 1965
Palm Beach

"Lorelle Hearst Observes." Palm Beach Daily News, social column.

10 November 1965
Palm Beach Daily News

Mrs. Earl E. T. "Flo" Smith dies.

Next: Chapter XXIX, Thanksgiving at Medway Plantation, dinner in Palm Beach with Bing & Kathy Crosby & Boca Grande with the du Ponts.

Ellen Glendinning Ordway's photographs are from the Collection of Gayle Abrams.

Augustus Mayhew is the author ofLost in Wonderland – Reflections on Palm Beach.