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Resort Life, Chapter XXXVI

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August 1969. Down East. Frederick "Freddy" Melhado arrives on a 85-foot motor sailboard with his two sons and Joe Meehan aboard.
Resort Life, Chapter XXXVI: January 1969- September 1969
Medway Plantation + Palm Beach +Lyford Cay + Down East

By Augustus Mayhew

In 1969, NASA was busily putting a "Man on the Moon." For Ellen Ordway, there was a quiet dinner with the Phipps family, a visit from James Cox Brady at the Lyford Cay Club, and a wedding reception to stage for Gus the Rhinoceros and Click-Click held at Lion Country to benefit the Animal Rescue League and the World Wildlife Fund. Amid this joie de vivre, Palm Beach was "plunged into mourning … several elaborate dinner parties were cancelled," according to Suzy, with the news that the Duchess of Windsor's pug, Minoru, died while the Windsors were staying at Gemini, Loel and Gloria Guinness' estate in Manalapan.

So, don something sedate and join the Duke and Duchess of Windsor as they pay their last respects to their beloved pug, interred in Ellen Ordway's garden at Villa Bel Tramonto.

January 1969
Medway Plantation
"Eleven years of Christmas presents …" and counting.
Burk and Tony Lapham with Gertrude Legendre.
Dorothy (Mrs. E. F.) Hutton.
Bo Legendre with her mother's approving look.
John Kellogg and John Pirie.
Dorothy Hutton, Charles Huntington Erhart, Gertrude Legendre, and John Pirie at the Log Cabin for lunch.
"Gertie's wild ducks jostle each other …"
"Jimmy" Erhart and Dorothy Hutton.
Bo Legendre and Landine Legendre Manigault.
Jim Fowler and Peter Manigault.
Tony Lapham.
January 1969
Palm Beach


"A Quiet Supper with the Phipps family at Villa Bel Tramonto"
Nonie Phipps Schippers and Bess McGrath.
Michael Phipps.
Ogden Mills Phipps.
"Ogden tries on Nonie's wig." A playful Ogden Phipps and Jane Scott lighten the mood.
Nonie Phipps Schippers and her aunt, Eleanor "Purvy" Purviance Bostwick. When Purvy Bostwick's son A. C. Bostwick Jr. divorced Mollie Netcher (later, Mollie Wilmot) during the mid-1960s, the daily courtroom drama became headline news.
Bess McGrath and Ogden Phipps have some fun.
February 1969

"Lunch on Lake Worth with Gates Davison and Barry Stewart"
Gates Davison.
Barry Stewart.
March 1969
Lyford Cay Club
"Our villa. We are the guests of Ruth and Vince Draddy."
Ruth Draddy.
Lady Ann Orne-Lewis' house.
Style arbiter Lady Ann Orne-Lewis' house.
"Mr. Boffin was at home."
Lyford Cay Club. Gertrude Legendre and John Pirie.
Lunch poolside at the Lyford Cay Club.
Noted horseman James Cox Brady at the Draddy villa.
Peggy Draddy.
March 1969
Palm Beach
Villa Bel Tramonto, Banyan Road.
Ellen Glendinning Ordway and Libby Pratt.
Animal Rescue League fundraiser, Invitation. Wedding reception of Gus, a white rhino, and Click-Click at Lion Country Safari.
Mrs. James Bernhard, Winston Guest, Ellen Ordway, and Dysie Davie with Butch the chimp, best man at the rhino wedding.
Ellen Ordway and Gus the rhinoceros.
Newspaper feature for the Animal Rescue League benefit.
Susie Phipps Cochran with Angela and Jay Cochran.
Peter Reed.
Michael Phipps, Bess McGrath, and John "Ben" Henry Howard Phipps (1904-1982), Mike Phipps' brother. Ben Phipps and his wife Clippy lived in Tallahassee, having developed Ayavalla Plantation in Northwest Florida's Red Hills.
Ben Phipps. A lifelong conservationist, Ben Phipps owned radio and television stations in Northwest Florida and Georgia, having headed up the John H. Phipps Broadcasting Stations Inc. The Phipps' son, Colin Phipps, is a sponsor of the 2014 Red Hills International Horse Trials scheduled for 6-9 March 2014 on the grounds of Phipps Park.
Elinor Klapp "Clippy" Phipps. The Elinor Klapp Phipps Park is a more than 600-acre tract on Tallahassee's Lake Jackson, adjacent to the Phipps family property.
April-May 1969
Mini-Season for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Palm Beach Daily News, society column.

"Minoru, the Duchess of Windsor's pug died and was buried on the grounds at the Ordway house, Villa Bel Tramonto.
Suzy reports on the Duke and Duchess' comings and goings.
The Duchess of Windsor stands next to her pug's final resting place at Villa Bel Tramonto.
The Duke of Windsor snaps photos of the Duchess and Minoru's grave site.
Minoru Windsor, grave site. Villa Bel Tramonto.
The Windsors' pug was buried next to two of Ellen Ordway's beloved dogs, Pootsie and Mackie.
A poised Duchess of Windsor glances down to the colorful lilies. Au revoir Minoru.
January-June 1969
News from here and there
Wedding invitation, Nancy Yuille, Lady Dunraven's son, Earl of Dunraven, and Geraldine MacLeer.
Debutante Ball, New York. Far right, John Ordway with his daughter Susan Ordway. "A December event received photo in April."
Wedding announcement. Braga-Drexel wedding.
"Eagle has landed."
Ellen Ordway's longtime friend Sally Biddle Henry Gowen's husband died.
Count Court Reventlow died.
Telegram. Josephine Drexel Duke-John Marshall Brown wedding announcement and invitation.
Josephine Duke-John Marshall Brown engagement announcement.
Ellen Ordway donates a shade tree to Lion Country Safari.
Cernadas-Rutherfurd marriage engagement announcement.
Kitty Miller robbed.
Down East

19 June 1969
Northeast Harbor
"I arrive at Borderlea."
"Picnic on Sutton Island with Coxie Toogood and Marjory Newbold."
Coxie Toogood and her mother Marjory Newbold.
Edith Clark and Granville Toogood.
Ann Gates, standing center, with Cora Clarkson, left, and Jane Scott, right. Clarkson was Ethel Garrett's sister; her husband Robert was the former chairman of American Express and president of the Chase National Bank.
August 1969

"Freddy Melhado arrives in town with his really nice kids aboard an 85-foot motor sail."
"Sea Prince," Freddy Melhado's sailboat is the tall mast on the far right.
Freddy Melhado.
Chris Melhado and Peter Melhado.
Wall Street-Southampton notable Joseph Meehan, aboard the Melhado boat.
Freddy Melhado gets ready to take the kids skiing.
Joe Meehan. When Kay Meehan died in February 2011, DPC wrote about the Meehans.
"Just another pretty boat, but whose is it?"
"Susie Cochran comes for a visit."
Jay Cochran makes a new friend.
August 1969

"On a cold and windy day, Marjory Newbold takes us to Cranberry Island."
"Marjory, our hostess."
Coxie Toogood.
"Had Shriver."
Gerda Paumgarten Newbold and "Little Gerda."
Artie Newbold and Gayle Jennings Abrams.
Nathalie Pierrepont and Jan Frazer.
"Labor Day weekend."
Otley Cochran.
Orton "Tubby" Jackson.
Laura Pepper.
Otley Cochran.
Orton "Tubby" Jackson and Frances Brewster-Smith.
Next: Resort Life, Chapter XXXVII: Everglades hunt with Ogden Phipps + London + Ireland + Palm Beach + Maine Chance Farm @ Phoenix

January 1970. "A Phipps-style quail hunt in the Everglades."
Ellen Glendinning Ordway Photograph Collection courtesy of Gayle Abrams & Lucius Ordway Frazer.
Augustus Mayhew is the author of Lost in Wonderland: Reflections on Palm Beach

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