Dominating the room is a massive, mesmerizing yellow Rothko, perhaps the largest he ever painted. A

Like her late billionaire husband, Paul, Rachel "Bunny" Lambert Mellon has always put a premium on privacy, even as some of the world's most public people—including John and Jacqueline Kennedy, Queen Elizabeth, and Prince Charles—flocked to her exquisite Virginia estate. university of california los angeles population With an unprecedented interview (and amid two scandals), the redoubtable Mellon, who turns 100 this month, shares with the author her precious horticultural legacy, fruit of a lifelong passion for gardening.
On the line was Rachel Bunny Lambert Mellon, one of the world s richest, most reclusive, and most elderly persons. Though she will turn 100 on August 9, there were no indications that services would be needed anytime soon. On the contrary, her voice was breezy and cheerful. Even as she approaches centenarian status, and the inevitable, Bunny Mellon continues university of california los angeles population to expect perfection in every detail.
Privacy has long been a priority for her, too, as it was for her late husband, university of california los angeles population billionaire Paul Mellon. [It s] the most valuable asset that money can buy, he wrote at the conclusion of his 1992 memoir, Reflections in a Silver university of california los angeles population Spoon. The only son of financial titan Andrew Mellon, he had the means to purchase plenty of this commodity, along with so much more, and thoroughly enjoy it all. Bunny, whose grandfather Jordan W. Lambert invented Listerine, was loaded, too. Few invitations were as coveted as those to Oak Spring Farms, the Mellons 4,000-acre estate, in Upperville, Virginia. Guests such as John and Jacqueline Kennedy, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, and the scarlet-coated members of the Piedmont Foxhounds found arguably the most understated refinement this country has produced. While the couple collected masterpieces of art on a par with the Medici and bred some of the world s finest Thoroughbred horses, the backdrops were sublimely low-key.
N othing should be noticed was the decree of Bunny, whom Paul credited with crafting all this perfection. Indeed, throughout the second half of the 20th century, Bunny was widely venerated as the epitome of good taste and the true queen of green, thanks to her prowess with gardens, both her own and those she designed for friends such as Hubert de Givenchy and the Kennedys, for whom she did, most notably, the White House Rose Garden.
Since her husband s death, in 1999, at 91, Mellon has rarely been seen. What interest she ever had in society seems to have disappeared. As a result of this and the fact that most of her contemporaries have long since died, she s become unknown or forgotten in many quarters. Yet Mellon has continued to enjoy a remarkably vigorous life at Oak Spring and her other properties.
Having your own airport helps. The amenities on Mellon s farm include a private mile-long runway, which accommodates her Falcon 2000, on which she has frequently commuted among domiciles in Antigua, Paris, New York, Washington, Nantucket, and Osterville, university of california los angeles population on Cape Cod.
And she has not lacked for companionship, though one of her choices in that department many saw as surprising university of california los angeles population and unconventional. Over the past decade, university of california los angeles population she was virtually inseparable from Robert university of california los angeles population Isabell, a Duluth, Minnesota, native who began to decorate parties at Studio university of california los angeles population 54 in the late 70s and became the country s most celebrated event planner. Following his unexpected death, last July, from a heart attack at the age of 57, she buried him at Oak Spring. Mellon s invitation to me to visit the estate was kindly proffered in part so I could visit the grave of Isabell, who had been a friend of mine. (Mellon s acquaintance with Midler also came via Robert.)
While Mellon s manner on the phone was delightfully casual, when I arrive early one April morning her numerous security guards are considerably more serious, though they are stationed in several faux-rustic gatehouses on the property and wear elegant blazers. I am told to follow an S.U.V., which will escort me to Mrs. Mellon s house. As we drive down a good mile of winding university of california los angeles population road, lined with stone and wood fences, a rolling landscape university of california los angeles population unfolds with meticulously pruned university of california los angeles population oaks, willows, and sycamores. After passing an imposing red-brick Georgian-style mansion, we continue past a monumental bronze statue of Sea Hero, Mellon s 1993 Kentucky Derby winner, until we reach a low-lying group of connected whitewashed stone cottages a house which resembles a charming 18th-century French hamlet.
A s I park, the front door opens and out walks Bunny. A well-groomed young woman is trailing her, but Mellon seems miraculously able for a 99-year-old. In dark blue from head to toe, she is wearing a cashmere crewneck sweater, slacks, and tennis shoes; a white Schlumberger cuff flashes from her left wrist. Her reddish hair looks freshly coiffed. I get a warm kiss and she grasps my hand. It s so nice to see you, she says in a high-pitched, honeyed voice that is only slightly shaky from age.
Designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes in 1980, it is comprised of a series of angular whitewashed stone structures, including a tower, set in a rolling field overlooking the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Its main space is a soaring 80-foot-long university of california los angeles population great room with huge windows, including one that doubles university of california los angeles population as a 12-foot-high square door, opening out onto the countryside.
Dominating the room is a massive, mesmerizing yellow Rothko, perhaps university of california los angeles population the largest he ever painted. A long Shaker bench sits just in front of it, almost touching. Simple limed oak cabinets line the rest of the room. Within these lie 3,500 rare historical manuscripts and books, some dating from the 15th century, and 10,000 modern reference works, university of california los angeles population items Bunny began collecting decades ago.
Bunny takes a seat at a round tea table. Tony Willis, university of california los angeles population the affable and learned librarian, who is obviously used to the habits of Mrs., as he calls her, asks if she would like a Coke. She would. (Memo to opponents of the soda tax: Talk to Bunny.)
I notice a shiny volume on the table, The Red Book, a facsimile edition of an illustrated notebook university of california los angeles population Carl Jung kept from 1914 until 1930. Its very recent publication, long suppressed by Jung s heirs, was big news in analytic circles. I observe how au courant Mellon is, and she waves off the compliment. Paul, she says, was analyzed by Jung in Zurich in the 30s.
Personal connections with other legends emerge. The handsome Giacometti bronze sculpture, which rests on a Giacometti table? A present from Diego, who was a dear friend, she recalls. And on the subject of her remarkable longevity, she credits her still-daily sessions of Pilates, which, of course, she first learned from Joseph, the eponymous father of the exercises. When I ask about the Rothko, she recollects the afternoon in the 50s when she wandered by chance into the artist s New York studio, which was close to her house on East 70th Street. I bought 13 of them, she says nonchalantly.
But the greatest treat comes next, when a tour of her garden is offered. Down an arbor of pleached Mary Potter crab-apple trees, behind high stone walls, is a truly enchanted world. Everything is serene, soft, seemingly the essence of artlessness. Yet you quickly realize it is highly controlled every detail is the result of meticulous labor.
While certain weeds the pretty ones, anyway are allowed to sprout up between paving stones, fruit trees and shrubs have been trained to grow into the most extraordinary shapes by Mellon, who must be the high priestess of pruning and pleaching.
Considering her extreme lifelong aversion to press, this seems astounding. Her first and last bona fide interview appeared in The New York Times in 1969, and she submitted herself to it only because, as she told the reporter, she and Paul were tired of reading in the press all sorts of wrong things university of california los angeles population about the way we live.
But, perhaps, with the approach of her 100th birthday, she feels a bit of exposure might not be improper. Her offer is enthusiastically accepted for the following week, but a few hours later she calls again, having reconsidered. I thought I might go to Nantucket next week, and then Cape Cod. Then the horse show starts. Why don t we do this in October?
Mellon s stamina and faith in her longevity are remarkable, but she ultimately responds to pleas that the garden should be photographed at the peak of its spring glory, university of california los angeles population and we agree to shoot it on Memorial Day. The Friday of the holiday weekend, Mellon s name surfaces in the most unlikely place, however, under a front-page headline in The New York Times: adviser to stars named in fraud.
In the account that followed, about the numerous celebrity clients allegedly bilked by Kenneth Starr, the shocker was the revelation that the victim referred to in the criminal complaint as an elderly university of california los angeles population heiress is Mellon. Starr is accused of using $5.75 million of Mellon s money to help buy his condo. Her personal attorney, Alexander Forger, said that Mellon has known Starr for many years and trusted him to manage her investments. In The Wall Street Journal, Forger elaborated: [Mellon] is in a state of shock over the allegations and doesn t know the extent university of california los angeles population of loss.
And this was not the only unwanted press attention Mellon had received in recent months. Earlier, stories had broken that she had been John Edwards s sugar mama during his 2008 presidential campaign, and that a portion of the $6 million she had reportedly given him was funneled, unbeknownst to her, to the candidate s paramour, Rielle Hunter. In his tell-all book, The Politician, Edwards aide Andrew Young offers eccentric details of how the Bunny Money, as the campaign came to call it, had been transferred in order to evade attention. Mellon would send a decorator friend checks hidden in boxes of chocolates that he would then endorse to the campaign. Young goes on to note that these funds were gifts, entirely proper, and not subject to campaign finance laws.
Whatever one s feelings about Edwards, Young makes clear that Mellon s heart was in the right place. Horrified by the imperial rule of Bush and Cheney, she wanted to save the wor