DORCAS HARDIN : MORE THAN THREE DECADES AS MISTRESS OF BILLIONAIRE ART COLLECTOR and HORSE BREEDER PAUL MELLON : REVISITING DORCAS

In May 2018 my topic here at MISTRESS MANIFESTO BLOGSPOT was DORCAS HARDIN : Mistress of Billionaire Art Collector and Horse Breeder Paul Mellon.  It's time to revisit Dorcas Hardin as our Mistress of the Month since more information has come out!

DORCAS HARDIN

1911-2006

A terrific new book came out titled I'll Build A Stairway To Paradise by Mac Griswold in the fall of 2022. (Mac is a woman by the way.)  I waited weeks before a copy from my library was available to read. I could truly understand why it was on a librarian's choice list when I read it.  I believe that author Mac Griswold had access to Bunny Mellon and the family, first though social connections that went back, and then uncovered much that had not been revealed before about Mrs. Mellon, including her awareness and adaptation to her husband having a mistress.

Bunny Mellon, who started life out as Rachael Lambert, an heiress, was the wife of Paul Mellon. He was her second husband and she was his second wife. Mellon is estimated to have been worth at least 3.3 billion in today's money. In his book about his life, and in general, Paul Mellon was careful with his words and not one to be too revealing. 

Bunny was an immensely talented and self-taught garden designer as well as an art collector who, with her husband, donated a vast collection of important works - paintings and sculptures - to the National Gallery of Art, which was founded by Paul's father Andrew Mellon. They lived a life of extreme privileged and there was nothing she could want for if it could be bought with money. She lived to design outdoor spaces - the natural world, as well as interiors - to make them look effortless and comfortable and her clothing was custom designed by the most famous designers, her jewelry the most fabulous. However, her second marriage, proved to be one that left her wanting for love and companionship, and went sexless.

According to Griswold's book, the first half decade or so of the relationship between Paul and Bunny was highly charged and erotic, but then Paul decided to go into therapy and soon enough vacated the marriage sexually and otherwise. He decided that Bunny should remain Mrs. Mellon, but they lived lives that were essentially separate, joining together for social events. Society was wise to their arrangement perhaps, while in general they were far too elite for the public to know - or understand - due to the discretion of those in their class.

This fine book gives us the opportunity to know a bit more about Dorcas as well as Bunny and her attitude towards Paul and his mistress. So as I like to do I'll be excerpting the parts that deal with that. You can easily summon up the month of May 2018 in the archives and read what I posted back then about Dorcus, Bunny, and Paul which was based on a different book. Our understanding of Dorcas Hardin will expand as we learn more about the woman who kept company with Paul Mellon for many years, and it could be argued, was the true love of his life.

Here is how she is described in Mac Griswold's fabulous book from page 97:

"Dorcas was fabulous looking, tall, not thin but not fat either - well-rounded, I guess you'd call  her, " said one of my Foxcroft classmates whose family was friendly with the Hardins. "She had auburn hair in a pageboy, was pretty, and was always stunningly dressed and incredibly chic, She gave great dinner parties,  Despite her profound deafness ( Dorcas learned to lip-read to compensate.), "she wanted to be with people all the time." She was a beloved D.C. society figure.  "She was naughty and fun - always laughing.  I mean she was somebody's mother, but she was still a kick ... There was an amazingly good energy around her all the time.  And she noticed how you felt; she would say, "What's the matter with you?" then pat your cheek."

Dorcas was also alert to small things, to fashion statements perhaps not yet considered appropriate but that were fun and edgy. "When y younger sister wanted to get her ears pierced,: said a diplomat's daughter who worked in Dorcas;s boutique in the summer of 1972, "and our mother said no, Dorcas said, "Of course she should get her ears pierced."  Others remember Dorcas's great eye and her ability to be plainspoken without causing offense: "If you picked out clothes that didn't suit you, Dorcas would say, "No that doesn't look right."

***

Bunny ordered her clothes custom and had no need to buy clothing from Dorcas' boutique though Dorcas ordered in fashions from many of the world's most celebrated designers for her clientele. 

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Notes:

Bunny and Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis were best friends. It is noteworthy that Jackie invited Bunny to design the rose garden at the White House as well as the grave of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Bunny was old enough to be Jackie's mother and it could be said that Jackie had a better relationship with Bunny than her own mother and Bunny a better relationship with Jackie than her own daughter. 

Before we move on, here is an article from Town and Country on the extraordinary friendship between Bunny and Jackie TOWN and COUNTRY ; JACKIE AND BUNNY EXTRAORDINARY FRIENDSHIP

Interested in Jackie Kennedy?  President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his mistresses? They, as well as Little Edie Bouvier have been the subject here at Mistress Manifesto in the past. 

August 2014
LITTLE EDIE BOUVIER BEALE of Grey Gardens Fame. Her Affair With a Married Man May Have Done Her In.