Monday, May 30, 2022

TOUCHED BY THE SUN by CARLY SIMON: MISTRESS MANIFESTO BOOK REVIEW

"The Glint isn't necessarily sexual - but it's not unsexual either. The Glint has something more to do with some crazy charismata, weirdly acknowledged power."   page 131

TOUCHED BY THE SUN : My Friendship With Jackie

This book was short and glorious. Simon is known as a singer-songwriter but, with her books, she proves to also be a wonderful and descriptive writer, not just of scenes but of an array of fine emotions.

Will this book reveal Jackie Bouvier, who became First Lady of the United States widowed in a tragic assassination, then the wife of a controversial Greek millionaire, and then the long term companion of a man in the diamond business who never quite divorced his wife? SImon, a famous woman, struggles to be sensitive to another woman who is even more famous, and the Jackie she portrays is difficult to know, but yes you will have a glimpse of a woman who is ever aware that she is on the world stage, even in more intimate settings.

The quotation above I found most intriguing. Simon is talking about something I've experienced too, people - rare, who have the Glint, who you meet and feel some kind of energy emanating from, as if it comes from their eyes. As for their fame, Simon says she doesn't know who entered into whose "magnetic field" first.

That she was one of two close women friends allowed to come to Jackie's death bed says so much. The other friend was Bunny Mellon.

If you're interested in Carly Simon, Jackie Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, or Bunny Mellon, you will find lots to read in my archives here at Mistress Manifesto..

Bunny figures in the story of politician John Edwards and his mistress Rielle Hunter featured here in June 2012. as well as the Dorcas Hardin and Paul Mellon story May 2018 since Paul was her husband.

Carly herself is very much the story in June 2017 when I featured her then husband James Taylor's mistress called "Evey."

Jackie herself was HONORARY Mistress in December 2014.

Her cousin Edie Bouvier "Little Edie":had August 2014 to herself.

And Jackie's husband had mistresses too.  And so a few of the best known ones were featured here in July 2020 - Judith Campbell, in August 2020 - Mimi Alford, and in September 2020 - Mary Pinchot Meyer.

You can go to the month, or you can use the search feature to bring up posts with these names!

Missy

June 22 - I just edited this slightly.  Rereading it I saw some editing done previously had not been saved.


Thursday, May 26, 2022

MEN WHO TELL WOMEN THEIR FINANCIALS UP FRONT : OPINION BY MISSY

Dear Missy,

I'm a secretary and don't make a lot of money. Presently I find myself of interest to two different men and they both say they are Christians which is important to me.

One of them is a retired divorced business man who I met at the marina. He wants to start another business.  When we met we spent a couple hours talking and he told me a lot about his life. He said that he beat cancer but that his will was made and his great granddaughter gets everything. He asked me a lot of questions and I answered though later I regretted being so open. He asked me where I lived three times and I managed not to give an address. I gave him my e-mail and he quickly wanted to phone call instead, something I'm not much into. He suggested a walk, I agreed to meet up someday and when I did not want to spend time on the phone in the evenings, he backed off a bit. I'm all for taking it slow. That's why I like Christians.

The other is someone I know has admired me from afar for a while. We finally met up again because I started hanging out at his favorite coffee house. I didn't know it was but there he is. One day he sat with me and told me his story, that he's on disability and this had prevented him from marrying and having children in the past. It is a physical issue and I wasn't turned off by it. Talk about taking it slow, he flirts with me some times, but he doesn't actually ask me out. I admit this is the one of the two I feel more comfortable with, when there is actually one to one time.

I've actually met many men recently who upon meeting ask personal questions about my finances and are self revealing about theirs - the ex got the house - the children get their money. I think it's the influence of social networking and everything on the Internet.  What do you think?  And, who should I choose?

Maggie

Pensacola

ANSWER FROM MISSY

If the disabled man is actually willing to court you, I'd give him a chance.

Maggie, I think it's uncouth behavior to be talking finances up front like that, and you do not owe any stranger any details of your finances whatsoever or to give out your address. I'm not for revealing your private information on social networking either.

The rich man sounds like he wants to make sure any woman he meets is not after him for money. He should find himself a rich woman who thinks like he does and also has her will made.  Evenly yoked, then they can go dutch. 

If you are a woman who needs or expects some financial support from a man, well he may afford more expensive dates or take you on trips, but marriage? Maybe because he's Christian he will either marry you or not, but then he'd have to break his promises to his grand-daughter and she could be traveling the world while you sit out your old age. 

As for phone calls instead of going on dates, I don't like it. If you want to lay in bed in your nightgown and talk to your friends for hours instead of getting together, so you do, but phone calls instead of dates saves money and effort and you don't get to know what it feels like to be with the other person physically.

The poor man sounds like he wants to make sure any woman he meets knows there is no money. However, there are still lots of things to do that don't cost much so that shouldn't stop him from asking you on dates. If you want to date him, stop going to that hang out of his where it's so easy for him to see you around. He should ask for alone time with you. Flirting can be fun and just for fun but if he's testing your interest in him, after a while you just want to go on a date or two and go from there. 

Don't drag this out.

Meet more men!

Good Luck!

Missy








C 2022 Mistress Manifesto - BloSpot

Friday, May 20, 2022

A COURTESAN'S ESTATE SALE IN HOUSTON

ESTATE SALE OF REMAINING ITEMS OWNED BY LADY WALKER photos

Excerpts:   We are proud to have been chosen to sell a fabulous selection of beautiful furnishings and glamorous furs and jewelry from the Estate of Jewell DiAnne "Lady" Walker (longtime companion of billionare J. Howard Marshall II.)

Cerece Walke, Lady Walker's daughter, has contracted Estate Sales Houston to liquidate some of the remaining finery which belonged to her mother. Sterling flatware sets, Waterford Crystal, Dresden porcelain, Lenox Westchester china, Capo DiMonte porcelains, Royal Dalton ladies, antique Empire style sofa, Bombe gold chest, French Style gold display cabinet, mahogany dining suite with matching china cabinet and server, Victorian style chairs, fabulous Italian Bombe style painted bedroom suite... Fabulous furs including full length natural Russian sable, full length black ranch mink, full length American Cat Lynx with White Fox... Jewelry includes 4.12 sapphire and diamond ring, diamond brooches, gold and diamond bracelets...


Missy here!  I love that Lady Walker is called J. Howard Marshall's COMPANION.<

Sunday, May 15, 2022

J. HOWARD MARSHALL and HIS ESTATE TOOK LADY WALKER'S ESTATE TO COURT

MORELAW :Pierce Marshall, Executor of the estate of J. Howard Marshall, II v. Wells Fargo Bank (Texas) N.A. f/k/a First Interstate Bank of Texas, N.A. Houston, Texas successor administrator with will annexed of the estate of Jewell Diane Walker, and Charl Case Number: 92-002284

Long Title!

Having seen this lawsuit referenced in other articles on the Internet, I was glad to find this link. Occurring in Harris County, Texas, and pursued by Pierce Marshall, the son of J. Howard Marshall and executer of his estate after his father's death.

To reiterate, the linked to case revolves around a custom jeweler, Duggan - Creative Designs, and an agreement with that firm that involves a special account in which J. Howard Marshall agreed to deposit $20,000 to $25,000 a month with a limit of $350,000 (but it doesn't say if this was for a certain year or forever) so that Lady Walker could order her heart's desire jewelry. 



But Marshall's estate wanted EVERYTHING HE HAD GIVEN HER BACK, so to speak and that's when Duggan decided to add voice to it by stating that the firm was owed over $400,000. In other words, that Lady ordered more jewelry than decided upon.

As it turned out, in this case the jewelry ended up with nothing and Marshall's estate got $191,800 an amount associated with interest charged by Duggan. 


Friday, May 13, 2022

LADY WALKER THE COURTESAN and EXCERPT from THE MISTRESS - HISTORIES MYTHS and INTERPRETATIONS of the OTHER WOMAN by VICTORIA GRIFFIN


posted on Find A Grave, this photo shows Lady in her glorious bed
with what looks to be fur pillows.  
She's in the style of one of the Grand Horizontals of France.



Victoria Griffin
's book THE MISTRESS - Histories, Myths, and Interpretations of "The Other Woman" strives to define the word "Mistress" as well as other labels for women such as Concubine. 

Excerpt: The word 'mistress', it was suggested on a radio program recently, carries risque connotations in a way that the more modern, neutral word 'partner' doesn't.  Partner tends in any case to refer to the other half of a couple, and not usually to the extra third of a threesome.  Likewise 'lover' or girlfriend' though they could denote the possibility of an extant wife, do not necessarily do so. 'Mistress', on the other hand, always sounds illicit, as well as rather luxurious.  There are those who think of the word as old-fashioned, though I don't see why it should be considered to be any more out of date than 'wife' or 'husband'.  In all three cases, the roles may have been modified in recent years, while the names remain the same.  It has also been pointed out that there is no male equivalent of 'mistress."

***
I note that while there is a search for that equivalent, I have used the term mantress here at Mistress Manifesto...


Wednesday, May 11, 2022

ABORTION AS A HUMAN RIGHT : OPINION by MISSY

I'm for CHOICE of ABORTION. It's a choice very many women have made, sometimes under pressure from the man, or family, or simply economic pressure, sometimes because the woman herself knew she was not up to carrying, birthing, or raising another human being to adulthood, at least not based on what she knew of her life at the time. I'm for choice of abortion because of rape and incest, especially of women and girls who are unable to make their own choices due to age, innocence or ignorance, or because they are of low intelligence, or some other factor. Because of sex trafficking and abduction. Because a pregnancy should never be a punishment for being the victim of predators or violence.

I'm for planning - to not have children at all - to the number and spacing of wanted children; however I know that contraception, even the pill, is not 100% guaranteed. I've met those women who got pregnant despite using contraception. A friend of mine has a cousin who had three children and got her tubes tied and still got pregnant again...They joked about the fertility of her family.

I've seen the photos of aborted fetus.  I've seen the photo of a woman who was left to bleed to death in a hotel room where an illegal abortion had been performed on her. I know she had to have been desperate.  Men are almost always involved in the impregnation, if not the decision. Men who do not want a child have been known to assume that the woman would abort if she got pregnant or to hand her cash to go have it done. 

Yet, as difficult as it is to admit, there are so many children who were born unwanted, children whose parents cannot provide for them, children whose parents are irresponsible, so we also must ask ourselves about the pain that person experiences growing up in such circumstances.

It's still complicated and difficult. Yet, I've met those who said an abortion was an easy decision if not an easy experience.

One young woman who is on the pill after having been raped by a stranger, showed me her contraceptive pills as well as the abortion pills she was sent home with from a clinic, telling me she had been advised to take them immediately should she have unprotected sex -wanted or unwanted - again.  (This I wondered about. It seemed excessive to me.) Abortion pills causing an early miscarriage taken at home are not without pain, but apparently not as dangerous as waiting and having a surgical procedure. They became available in the year 2000.  I do wonder what hormones given for any condition including menopause do to the body.  The longer the wait for any form of abortion, the more dangerous it is.

I believe that today everyone but those who intend pregnancy, cooperatively, should be using protection, to not only avoid pregnancy, but SIDS, including HIV, herpes, and chlamydia. This in itself should significantly cut down on the numbers of people having to face THE CHOICE. I'm sure that drinking or drugging to the point where you have a 'what the hell' attitude about unprotected sex is stupidity - if you're smart enough to be stupid. So I question how often the need for abortion started with an unwillingness or inability to obtain and use contraception.

What I think people are reacting to is that in the years since the 1973 Roe Versus Wade decision, medical science has improved to the point where surgery can be done on a fetus before birth.  Babies who were once doomed because they were born just so premature are being kept alive and eventually thrive. So the question of when conscious and viable life begins is there.  As a result, I think there may be some determination that abortion past a certain point in fetal development be illegal.  However, that illegality will once again push such surgeries into the hands of those who do so illegally and dangerously.  (Along with the medical doctors with training who have provided abortions for those who can afford it all along.)

My understanding is that the Supreme Court was considering not banning abortion, but moving that decision from a federal decision back to the individual states' decision. It would be much more difficult for the states to return that decision back to the Supreme Court. 

C 2022  Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

Update June 24, 2022  My understanding is now that the Supreme Court of the United States did overturn abortion and that did automatically end abortion in states where there was a "trigger" response.  I was unaware that states had this in place.  Looking at the map, I'm glad to see that states along the West Coast and some in what we call New England, still provide.  However I will post in another place about this.

Monday, May 9, 2022

LADY WALKER and MISSY HAS A QUESTION FOR YOU!


Lady Walker - her mom - posted on her daughter Cerese's Facebook Page.

FACEBOOK : CERECE WALKER

This photo expresses Lady's personality through her choices in clothing, her shoes and hat, her hairstyle, and the setting - a white Baby Grand.

If you had riches, what would you do with your appearance?

Your clothing?  Your hair?  Your jewelry? Would you have cosmetic surgery?

Please leave a comment!

Missy

Saturday, May 7, 2022

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MISTRESSES MAY BE THE ONES YOU'LL NEVER KNOW ABOUT : BETTER TO BE NEVER MARRIED THAN DIVORCED?

In search for Mistresses of the Month (and other Kept individuals) to feature here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot, I've come to the notion that the most successful mistresses may be the one's you never know about.  

Why?

To start, many relationships that are Alternative are kept secret through discretion simply because those involved know that they don't want or need condemnation as they are outside the "normal." Pressure is (still) strong not only to be married but stay married (more so in certain cultures.) People feel this not only because of family values but because of their careers. For some not being heterosexually married is (still) a career issue.

I recall sitting with some women friends at a café one Saturday morning years ago and the discussion was "Is it better to be never married or divorced?" I thought it was better to be never married. My friends felt that it was better to be divorced. Divorced meant to them that you were looked upon as a normal person who wanted marriage and so, you failed. Better to have tried this traditional coupling and be known for it.  Better to have lost at love than be perceived as having never loved.

Since then I've met people who have been married many times. Someone I worked with married five times and had children with each partner. (He tended to be the type who let women choose him and be the ones who pursued him as well. He was OK with step fathers taking over the fathering. Maybe he saw himself as a sperm donor for career women?)

The other day a man was telling me that he had "lived with" several women. In five minutes he explained a love life that went on for many years, seven live-in partners, no children.  When I said "Wow you're a cat with 12 lives!  Married seven times!"  he made a point of correcting me. Those live in situations were not marriages. It was as if he was saving himself for marriage.  I did think there must be something wrong there.

Here's what I was thinking. How seven women may have thought that if they lived with him they would become married to him. How, if that was what they wanted in life - marriage - they wasted their time on him. How many mistresses who have been with one man outside of marriage for years have more stability, more love, a better life than their peers who are living with men who will not marry.

I think mistresses should live apart from their men, have a life outside their extramarital relationship. Any man who keeps a woman aside of his marriage should understand that and help her make that happen.  (If you're a mistress reading this, please do not live in isolation and waiting.)

This month I was thinking about Lady Walker (Jewell DiAnne/Dianne Walker) and how little I was able to find out about her. 

Obviously there were many people in Houston society (high society) who knew about her and J. Howard Marshall II, and that was probably true of his family, possibly his wife, his friends. But to this moment, it is not too easy to learn more about her. If her daughter had not written a book, all we might find out is the public information about a lawsuit. Though this relationship was happening for the most part before the Internet, if she, he, and that society were not more discreet, she probably would have "made the papers" in those years.

Consider that some of the other women profiled here who lived years earlier than Lady did "make the papers" accused of immorality, gold-digging, or held at arm's length by society.  Newspapers intended to shame them or make them infamous.  Some of these women wanted to be famous because they were self supporting in careers in entertainment. 

How many Mistresses have continued their relationships without becoming known or do now?

I don't think we'll ever have reliable statistics about that.

Missy








C Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot 2022







Monday, May 2, 2022

JEWELL DIANNE "LADY" WALKER - A MISTRESS OF BILLIONAIRE J. HOWARD MARSHALL - WHO WENT CHRISTIAN AND DIED OF A FACE LIFT

 JEWELL DIANNE "LADY" WALKER

1940 - 1991


She was beautiful, vivacious, greedy and lusty and a lot of fun. 
She made her way up from exotic dancer to a personality on the Houston, Texas social scene where showing off isn't thought of the way it is in say, Puritanical Old Money New England.

Before there was Anna Nicole Smith, there was Jewell Dianne Walker, called "Lady," in the life of billionaire James Howard Marshall II.  

We might not have known that this influential business man, who came from an illustrious background, who had not only an elite Yale Law School education, but was a member of high society, and who achieved his extreme riches in the petroleum business, had another mistress in his life for near a decade, if it were not for her daughter, Cerece Walker. She wrote a book "Before Anna Nicole": A Mother, a Mistress, A Millionaire & Me : A Lady's Story from Rags to True Riches. That, and that Marshall sued her estate to get money back when, ironically, he found out though her will that she'd had another lover.

The end of the story is that before she died - of a face lift - though her daughter thinks that's mysterious - Lady became a Christian, as did her daughter. They were involved in the Lakewood Church, the massive congregation of John Osteen, also based in Houston. (As it's said, everything is biggest in Texas!) Thus in the end she moved from a personal relationship with a flesh and blood man to a personal relationship with Jesus. This was a great relief to many.

Because of her belief at the end of her life, it's assumed that despite being a Mistress, Lady was saved, forgiven for her indulgent lifestyle with someone else's husband because she recanted and was sorry. 

The title of the book also says something that we all need to remember. A Mistress is never "just" a Mistress. She has other experiences, other relationships. In her life she probably experienced all the archetypes of femininity.  The Maiden.  The Mother.  The Lover.  The Old Woman. She experiences innocence, seduction, motherhood or nurturing, and perhaps wisdom. 


There is much to the story "in between." 

Born in the World War II era of 1940, Dianne, as her friends called her in her Houston high school, went from rags to riches. But not overnight. She got the clothes, the furs, the jewelry, the cars, the objects of art and exquisite accommodations - once J. Howard Marshall was in her life. Before that she went from relationship to relationship and lived an unstable life, one that dragged Cerece through upheaval. She had several marriages and divorces. 

It is said that she was married to one man and living with another when she met J. Howard.

For  Dianne, being a Mistress to a rich man was the most stable experience of her life, a total upgrade. The upgrade is one of the reasons why so many are vulnerable to being Kept. She was 42ish when she met the man in his late 70's. By then she had lived through quite a bit. Lady Walker had been a topless dancer and had once been known for a mother-daughter (that's Cerece) stripper act. The billionaire met her in a strip club. 

Marshall was a fascinating man, an Alpha Male of the highest order. Images of him in a wheelchair marrying Smith a couple years after Lady's death don't give you that impression, but he was, and he was also most of his life very handsome. He knew what he wanted. He knew what he could have. His namesake son, however, suggested that by the 1980's his dad had started going bonkers about strippers and went from careful with his money to overly, unwisely generous. 

How generous was the man with his Mistress Jewell? He gifted her an estimated $15 million in jewelry and other things.  He called the gifts consulting fees.  Like the courtesans of the Belle Epoch in Paris, Lady bought furniture and art, quality items that were investments but showed off her acquired riches and eventually much of this would be auctioned after her death.

J. Howard Marshall II was born in 1905. He first married Eleanor Pierce in 1931, had two sons, and divorced in 1961. So far his life seemed conventional and what was expected of him. He married again, to Bettye Bohannon, in 1961, and stayed married to her until 1991 though he was with Lady many years at that point. This wife succumbed to Alzheimer's. So when he met Lady, reportedly in 1982, and began a relationship with her, supposedly he said he would marry her if and when Bettye died. What ended their relationship was Lady's own death in 1991.

Likely both grieving and lonely, the billionaire then met the far younger Anna Nicole Smith. He died in 1995 and that would set off legal action between his then wife, Smith, and his family.

This month we'll look into the life of Jewell Dianne "Lady" Walker, who is not the first stripper (or exotic dancer) who became a Mistress of the Month featured here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot. 

C 2022

References for this post, include the book above, Find - a - Grave, numerous reviews of the book, Cerese Walker's Facebook, Wikis, articles such as Lawyer : Billionaire Wracked With Guilt in the Houston Chronicle - March 1, 2001, by writer Bill Murphy  Future posts will contain references and links where needed.

In September 2018 our Mistress of the Month was Gypsy Rose Lee, Stripper Mistress of Waxy Gordon in the Speakeasy Era.