Read Online The Family by Kitty Kelley - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Kitty Kelley
Tags: Fiction
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reigned at the top of St. Louis society, for there was no more socially prestigious or discriminating club in the city. “This is Nirvana for St. Louis,” said Robert Duffy, the architectural critic for the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, pointing out the rolling hills of golf greens, polo fields, tennis courts, and swimming pools that made up and still make up the exquisite enclave. The property was lined with lovely multimillion-dollar mansions, but just because you bought a home on the grounds of the country club did not mean you were allowed inside. For many years the St. Louis Country Club denied membership to all Jews, Catholics, blacks, and brewers, including the fabulously wealthy Busches, the biggest name in beer.
The covenant restrictions were so exacting in St. Louis at one time that even in the richest sections of town—Kingsbury Place, Pershing Place, Hortense Place, and Westminster Place—laws mandated how many sets of lace curtains each household had to have and how often they were to be laundered. At the time Prescott Bush rang the bell on the elaborate Beaux Arts door of 12 Hortense Place, lace curtains were hanging in every window, including in “the fainting room,” where trussed-up women were revived from the clutches of their corsets.
Little is known about the romantic attractions of either Prescott or Dorothy before meeting each other in St. Louis, although it’s doubtful that Dorothy had had any suitors, other than the sweet attentions of Mary Carter, who was five years her junior.
As for Prescott, he could not but have noticed the large number of his class who had married when they convened at his first Yale reunion after graduation. He had already ensured the marriages of his two younger sisters by introducing them to Yale colleagues: Margaret Bush married Stuart Clement (Yale 1917), and Mary Bush married Frank E. House Jr. (Yale 1913x). (An “x” following an individual’s Yale class number indicates the individual entered with that class but left early, either dropping out or graduating early.) House, according to Yale Alumni Office records, did not graduate. Prescott’s younger brother, Jim, a sophomore at Yale, would never need help in getting married. To Prescott’s everlasting shame (and fury), Jim Bush would marry four times, bringing further disgrace on himself and the family name with each scandalous divorce.
As for his own romantic relationships, Prescott might have been briefly engaged at Yale, if a vague recollection can be trusted, but the secondhand remembrance is scant and the details scarce.
“Years ago my first husband’s great-aunt Marian Walsh Pierce told me she had once been engaged to Prescott Bush,” said Peggy Adler, a newspaper researcher. “During the 1960s, we both subscribed to the New Haven Symphony, and we’d go to the New Haven Lawn Club for dinner beforehand. One night she mentioned that she had been engaged to Prescott Bush, but the name meant nothing to me at the time. She said she broke the engagement to marry Clarence ‘Doc’ Pierce [Yale 1909].
“Marian’s brother was Richard J. Walsh, president of the John Day Publishing Company. He founded the company to publish his second wife, Pearl Buck, the American novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. His first wife’s name was Ruby. A New York tabloid headline on his divorce was: ‘Publisher Swaps Gems.’ Funny to think about how different the world might have been if Aunt Marian hadn’t changed her mind and decided to marry Prescott Bush.”
Prescott proposed to Dorothy in the summer of 1920, and George Herbert Walker accepted for his daughter. By then Bert had moved his family to New York City to go into business with W. Averell Harriman. Dorothy had joined the Junior League there but didn’t consider New York City home. She said she didn’t want to be married in Manhattan or St. Louis. Instead, she decided her wedding could only be at the place she had been born and loved the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
, pointing out the rolling hills of golf greens, polo fields, tennis courts, and swimming pools that made up and still make up the exquisite enclave. The property was lined with lovely multimillion-dollar mansions, but just because you bought a home on the grounds of the country club did not mean you were allowed inside. For many years the St. Louis Country Club denied membership to all Jews, Catholics, blacks, and brewers, including the fabulously wealthy Busches, the biggest name in beer.
The covenant restrictions were so exacting in St. Louis at one time that even in the richest sections of town—Kingsbury Place, Pershing Place, Hortense Place, and Westminster Place—laws mandated how many sets of lace curtains each household had to have and how often they were to be laundered. At the time Prescott Bush rang the bell on the elaborate Beaux Arts door of 12 Hortense Place, lace curtains were hanging in every window, including in “the fainting room,” where trussed-up women were revived from the clutches of their corsets.
Little is known about the romantic attractions of either Prescott or Dorothy before meeting each other in St. Louis, although it’s doubtful that Dorothy had had any suitors, other than the sweet attentions of Mary Carter, who was five years her junior.
As for Prescott, he could not but have noticed the large number of his class who had married when they convened at his first Yale reunion after graduation. He had already ensured the marriages of his two younger sisters by introducing them to Yale colleagues: Margaret Bush married Stuart Clement (Yale 1917), and Mary Bush married Frank E. House Jr. (Yale 1913x). (An “x” following an individual’s Yale class number indicates the individual entered with that class but left early, either dropping out or graduating early.) House, according to Yale Alumni Office records, did not graduate. Prescott’s younger brother, Jim, a sophomore at Yale, would never need help in getting married. To Prescott’s everlasting shame (and fury), Jim Bush would marry four times, bringing further disgrace on himself and the family name with each scandalous divorce.
As for his own romantic relationships, Prescott might have been briefly engaged at Yale, if a vague recollection can be trusted, but the secondhand remembrance is scant and the details scarce.
“Years ago my first husband’s great-aunt Marian Walsh Pierce told me she had once been engaged to Prescott Bush,” said Peggy Adler, a newspaper researcher. “During the 1960s, we both subscribed to the New Haven Symphony, and we’d go to the New Haven Lawn Club for dinner beforehand. One night she mentioned that she had been engaged to Prescott Bush, but the name meant nothing to me at the time. She said she broke the engagement to marry Clarence ‘Doc’ Pierce [Yale 1909].
“Marian’s brother was Richard J. Walsh, president of the John Day Publishing Company. He founded the company to publish his second wife, Pearl Buck, the American novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. His first wife’s name was Ruby. A New York tabloid headline on his divorce was: ‘Publisher Swaps Gems.’ Funny to think about how different the world might have been if Aunt Marian hadn’t changed her mind and decided to marry Prescott Bush.”
Prescott proposed to Dorothy in the summer of 1920, and George Herbert Walker accepted for his daughter. By then Bert had moved his family to New York City to go into business with W. Averell Harriman. Dorothy had joined the Junior League there but didn’t consider New York City home. She said she didn’t want to be married in Manhattan or St. Louis. Instead, she decided her wedding could only be at the place she had been born and loved the
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