ya by Samuel L. Blumenfeld
J) Find out which ones are available; 2) pretend you're 110t interested in their money; 3) get down on your knees and pray, grovel and beg
From The New York Times, May 6, 1974: "Mrs. Mary ezuelan mountaintops. plantations on Caribbean islands. Rockefeller Strawbridge, younger daughter of . . . private planes, yachts: ror most people that's quite Nelson A. Rockefeller and Mrs. Mm'y Clark Rockefelenough. To clip coupons, see the world in style. live in a ler, was married here yesterday afternoon to Thomas :\'ew York town house or its equivalent elsewhere, and E .' Morgan, press secretary to former Mayor John V. have filet mignon every night, if you can sta'nd it: what Lindsay from 1969 to 1973. The p'rivate family ceremore is there ? Be advised that that kind of thinking is mony at th e bride's apa1·tment was performed by the very un-Rockefeller-at least for the third generation. Rev. David W. Jewell. ... The bride 1core a dark For them, there has never been enough. and that is why brown suit 7uith a lI;hite silk and ecru lace blouse for they have all continued to make more, and more. and the informal ceTemony." more. :'I'laking money basically heps them out of trouble. The bride and the groom had children oy previous :\ot many in the fourth generation. however, seem to marriages, both of Ichich e11decl in divO?·ce. The groom have this disposition for making money. :\lost of them had also, in an ea1'lier pe1'iod oj his lije, been a freeappear to be quite content with the amount they alr.·ady lance lcriter, Ichich is almost as much as to say that if ha\'e ~Ifld are more interested in cultural pursuits. Their Thomas B. Morgan can marry a Rockefeller, so can you. activities bl'ing them into contact \\ith a wide rdli):,' e (if people, which means that yo u might conceivably arr:1nge f you want to, of course. There are a few minor dis to meet one. advantages, which .will become apparent, but as At this point it wi!1 be useful to our purposes to note pure ambition there is sO!Yl~ thing quite laudable that the famous Rockefeller brothers are the descend about wanting to marry a Rockefeller. It shows that ants of .John D. Rockefeller through his only son. gut you want to better. YOLlrself, that YOll aspi re to the the oil billionaire also had three daug'hters, all of whom ranks of the winners. After all, the Rockefellers married and had children of their own. The three d,IUl!h are one of the richest families on earth, with an esti tel's produced seven third-generation Rockefellers; mated wealth of about four billion dollars under their three of them are quite alive. It is no easy business control, and all you have to do to be entitled to your fail' tracking down their children. of whom there appear to share is be one of them. John D. Rockefeller, who started be about twenty-four of them were brought into the it all in the late 1800's by generating one of the greatest clan via adoption. But an intelligent Rockefeller watch single foi·tunes in history through the creation and ex er can tell who's who after becoming familiar with the pansion of the Standard Oil company. did his many de names associated with the various marriages. scendants a tremendous service by making them all mil Then there are also the descenJants of WilJi ..lm Ro::ke lionaires at birth. The result is that every direct de feller, John D.'s brother and partner in Standard Oil. scendant of John D. Rockefeller enters a world as beau They are not considered as rich as their distant cousins, tiful and secure as the one he just came out of. although there is no way of knowinz for snre. Certainly, But the infant, especially if it is a male. inherits more they do not control anything as \Jig ant.! powerful as the at bil'th than j ust a trust fund and a lifetime pass to Rockefeller Foundation. Still, there are the trust funds the fabulous family estate at Pocantico Hills. He inhel' created by the estimated $200,000,000 legacy left b." its, to some degree, the Rockefeller winner psychology, William Rockefeller in 1922 to perpetuate his property which, in its transfer from generation to generation, among his children and their descendants. Also, it's along with mother's milk and grandpa's oil, may be .an vital to know that William's two sons, William Goodsell even gl'eater prize. That psychology has been especially and Percy Avery, both m~rried daughters of James evident in third-generation Rockefellers-the five sons Stillman, head of the 0<:ttional City Bank of :--Jew York, of John D. Rockefeller JI'. Its transfer to the fourth which for years has vied for first place with David generation, however, has not been as successful. The Rockefeller'S Chase :Manhattan. When James Stillman psychology has been diluted in transit, and the fourth died in 1918 he left an estate in trllst for his descendants generation members have been given the freedom to do valued in a 1941 accounting at .347,000.000. Thus, the with it what they will. The money, however, is still kep t present descendants of the Rockefeller-Stillman alliance under tight supervision, and its transfer is exercised are all recipients of trust funds from both sides of the with great care. The Rockefellers seem to know that family. (Senator William'Proxmire married one of these they are not particularly brilliant or imagina tive, Just Rockefellers in 1946.) l:J<;ky, and that without their inherited wealth they'd To avoid lineal confusion, I have found it useful to belike evzryone else. designate the descendants of John D. Rockefeller as the Triplex penthouses on Fifth Avenue, ranches on Ven A Rockefeller,; and the descenJant5 of hi" brother \\,i l
11-4 ESQUIRE: JAr-WARY Illustrated by Nicky Za nn :\!u\ Ip,ns
~e>-"-"'T.r-r::::----,:::::"....!.--:::~~ S~ n. \XI ill iam l-'rllxmire
:::;-;"",--=~'---s tra \\ bridges
Rockddkr
Juhn D. III -~'""-,,.--;;;:r.::.;::::-<
Winrhrup --~--+.....;:~ DaviJ---.!...--• "':"
\iarh,lde o\lcCurmitk Os~r ~'-::-"""'~-'; :\lax Osee ------.~o::S:-l".;-::::..--"--'....: 0idson ___~~~~=~:--~};;;:""":"":' ~~"':~il Young DoJge Happy ---"'S:::------...::;:;i::::;.=... ~hc Srdlrnan ~ IS(US :\bby Aldrich--4-~---" .',. -#'" > E. Parmake Pr~n[ll~ ----4-';:' Harold McCormick --..:....:.;....:-- Charles Au!,uswS Srron).;---.~~ ·,..;..--
:-'Ian:ell us Harrley DuJ).;!:
I ' \ I( Percy Avery ~) .,. ~ Bessie T" J"hn D. Ruckddkr Sf. r liam as the B Rockefellers. Of the twenty-eight or so Gilbert, Hubbard, and De Cuevas. And the fourth Rockefellers in the New York Social R egister (1973), generation girls through J.D.R. Jr.'s sons have picked eleven of them are A Rockefellers and seventeen al'e up such names as Spencer, Kaiser, Strawbridge, Pier B Rockefellers. So you see how careful you must be. son, Waletsky, and others equally nondescript. Keep You might spend months chasing a B Rockefeller think ing track of the fifth generation is going to be a real ing that he or she was an A Rockefeller. The difference problem. But it will be worth the bother. might mean a million or two--in either direction. One How much money does each one of them have? Since quick way to identify a B Rockefeller is to ask him if the Rockefellers have always been cagey about their he went to Yale. Just about every B Rockefeller male worth, the size of the individual fortunes was largely has gone there. In fact, one of them, William Rockefel a matter of conjecture until Nelson Rockefeller was ler McAlpin, married Yale president Angell's daughter forced to spill the beans about his own family's finances in 1926. Or you might ask him if he lives in Greenwich, at the Senate Rules Committee hearings on his nomina Connecticut. Most of the B's do. The A's are ensconced tion as Vice-President. Rockefeller testified that he had mainly in Manhattan. total holdings of $218,000,000, mostly in trusts, with Do the A Rockefellers ever get together with the B an average annual income over the last ten years of Rockefellers? Yes. A couple of years ago there was a $4,b00,000 before taxes. His second wife, Happy, is the big family reunion at Pocantico Hills at which every beneficiary of securities and trusts totaling $3,800,000, one walked around with name tags. There was also a and his six children hold assets, in trust or outright, huge family tree painted on a billboard to help every totaling $35,600,000. While the wealth of only these one see his place in the genealogical scheme of things. eight Rockefellers can be pinned down with some cer I suppose there must have been some curiosity over tainty, we can get an idea of how rich the others are which cousin was the richest, and whether he was an through the stories about wills and litigation over A or a B. trust funds which have appeared in the press over the years. It is not easy piecing it all together, but neither n any event, don't sell the B Rockefellers short. is mining for gold. When Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge, a daughter of We know, for example, that in 1917 J.D.R. set aside William Rockefeller, died on August 13, 1973, at in trust funds for his two living daughters, Alta and the age of ninety-one, she left an estate valued at Edith, 12,000 shares each of Standard Oil of Indiana. $85,000,000 for which there were no heirs. Her During their lifetimes, the girls were to live off the only son was killed in an auto accident in France income of the trusts, while the principal was to be in 1930 while on a holiday after graduating from passed on to their children after death. In the period Princeton. As of this writing, a Geraldine R. Dodge from 1917 to 1930, those 12,000 shares, which became Found;3.tion is in the process of being created; it will 356,350 shares by stock splits and dividends paiLl in be devoted to a wide range of charitable and cultural stock, yielded an income of more than $6,000,000, or causes. Some $45,000,000 of the assets is in stocks over $450,000 a year for thirteen years. When ELiith and tax-exempt bonds. Another $30,000,000 is in land. Rockefeller 'McCormick died in 1932. the trust was di Undoubtedly, some of that wealth came from Mrs. vided between her son and two daughters. When one of Dodge's late husband, Marcellus Hartley Dodge, once the daughters, ~Iuriel :'IlcCormick Hubbard, died in chairman of the Remington Arms Company. 1959, the portion of the trust fund she had inherited In addition, some of the third-generation B Rocke from her mother was worth $9,000,000. A legal fight fellers have married particularly well. For example, over the nine million was initiated by the guardian of James S. Rockefeller, son of William GoodseH Rocke Mrs. Hubbard's four adopted children to prevent the feller and Elsie Stillman, married Nancy Carnegie, trustees, headed by John D. Rockefeller III, from giv granddaughter of Andrew Carnegie, thus bringing into ing most of the nine million to Lincoln Center. By the one stream Rockefeller, Stillman, and Carnegie money. time an agreement was reached in 1965, the fund had Unfortunately, none of the fourth-generation members grown in value to $12,700,000. The final disposition was of this lucrative line are available for marriage. How $8,900,000 to Lincoln Center and $3,100.000 to the four ever, their fifth-generation crop is just about reaching adopted children. Not bad for a branch of the family prep-school and college age. largely ignored when one speaks of the Rockefeller The B Rockefeller line, however, seems to have some dynasty. inherent physical and psychological weaknesses. In If you are more attracted to the assertive side of the 1922, William Rockefeller, at eighty-one, caught a cold family, the ones with tentacles reaching into every and died shortly after of pneumonia. Five months corner of American cultural life, you have to address later, his son, William Goodsell, caught a cold while yourself to the Rockefeller descendants through J.D.R. watching the Harvard-Yale game and died a week later Jr. We are all familiar with the sons: John D. III of pneumonia at the age of fifty-two. Percy Avery, (philanthropist and buiider of Lincoln Center), Nelson William Rockefeller'S second son, died after an ulcer (ex-governor of New York and President Ford's selec operation in 1934 at the age of fifty-six. The following tion for Vice-President), Laurance (conservationist year, the two brothel's' wives (the Stillman sisters) and builder of exquisite island and mountain resorts) , died within four months of each other. Then, in 1938, Winthrop (rancher and governor of Arkansas, who Geraldine McAlpin Webster, one of William Rocke died in February, 1973), and David (president of the feller's granddaughters, died while giving birth to Chase Manhattan Bank and prime mover behind the twin sons, who survived. But the real tragedy for the World Trade Center) . All five were listed by Fortune B's occurred in 1951 when Percy's daughter, Winifred in 1957 as being worth between $100,000,000 and $200, Emeny, killed her two children and herself by locking 000,000 each. When asked by Walter Cronkite on a them all in the garage of their Connecticut estate and 1973 TV special to reveal how much he was worth at filling it with carbon monoxide. that time, David Rockefeller demurred. The matter Getting back to the A's, naturally none of the fourth was too personal, he said. generation descendants of .J.D.R. through his daugh The five energetic boys and one girl (Abby Rocke ters bear the l1am~ Rockefeller, except occasionaliy as fei ler Mauze) have produced twenty-four fourth-gen a middle name. They have names iike Oser, Prentice, eration Rockefeller-s, who call themselves "the cousins ." (One member of the fourth generation-Michael, son eral times. Are they accessible? No more, no less than of Nelson-was accidentally killed in 1961 while on an anyone else in that stratum of society. The family has anthropological expedition in New Guinea.) The cous always tended to guard its privacy, and, unlike the ins in turn have already produced at this writing some Kennedys, the Rockefellers are decidedly publicity shy. thirty-seven fifth-generation Rockefellers. That num In this unsettled age of hijackers, kidnappers, terror ber is bound to increase substantially in the years ists, and other assorted lunatics, their best protection ahead since the Rockefellers tend to like large families, is anonymity. So it will not be easy to lmow where they their concern for the population explosion notwith are, when they are there, or how to meet them-how standing. They like large families probably because ever, once you find out, if you are successful, you may they can afford them. get one of them to fall in love with you. So, if you want to marry a Rockefeller, you ought Here is a list of the fourth-generation eligibles, not not to think merely of your own benefit. Think of what including Nelson's two small sons by his second wife, it will do for your children. They will be born winners. Happy: The best example of such a winner is Winthrop Paul Age Status Parent Rockefeller, son of Winthrop and Barbara (Bobo) Sandra Rockefeller 39 Single J.D.R. III Rockefeller. Bobo was an immigrant miner's daughter Steven C. Rockefeller 38 Divorced Nelson who won a beauty contest at the 1933 Chicago Century Hope R. Spencer 36 Divorced J.D.R. III of Progress and played minor roles in a few Western Abby Rockefeller 31 Single David movies. Her first marriage to a New York socialite Laurance Rockefeller 30 Single Laurance ended in divorce, but it brought her into the social Alida Rockefeller 25 Single J.D.R. III circle of the rich. She met Winthrop at a dinner party, Eileen Rockefeller 22 Single David married him in 1948, and gave him his only child-a ·.son. She left him about a year later to live with her Would you believe that three daughters of John D. mother in Indiana, taking her child with her. When Rockefeller III and two daughters of David Rocke the marriage was dissolved in 1954, she won a $5,500, feller, two of the world's richest men, are unmarried? 000 divorce settlement: two million in cash plus $3, Why? Women, as all men know, are mysterious crea 500,000 in trust funds and allowances for the support tures. Rich women are the most mysterious creatures of herself and the boy, whose custody she was awarded. of all. They will assume that you want to marry them A year later Bobo bought a five-story town house in for their money. Can they be convinced otherwise? Manhattan on East Sixty-seventh Street, with a two Only if you've got more money than they have. story drawing room, squash court, three terraces, and Nevertheless, some Rockefeller women have made an elevator. (Before she married Winthrop she had unusual matches. Back in the 1920's, Edith Rockefeller lived in a Third Avenue walk-up.) Meanwhile, Winthrop :'IcCormick's sixteen-year-old daughter, :'Iathilde, fell senior had moved to Arkansas where he built his mag in love with her forty-three-year-old Swiss riding nificent cattle ranch, Winrock Farm, and eventually be master and married him without her mother'S consent came governor. Winthrop junior was brought up and when she turned eighteen. Shades of D. H. Lawrence. educated as befits a Rockefeller, and at age twenty-two Edith herself was qui te a woman. In 1895 she married was wed ip aristocratic splendor to lVIiss Deborah Harold ':'IcCormick, son of Cyrus ;\IcCormick, inventor Cluett Sage, daughter of Louis Davidson Sage of New of the reaper and founder of International Harvester. Canaan, Connecticut, and Mrs. Nicholas Chryssico The two had a stormy marriage but managed to domi poulos of London and Athens. The fashionable wedding nate Chicago social life as well as promote grand opera. was held at Colonial Williamsburg, which the bride It is said that Citize-n Kane was in part modeled after groom's grandfather had restored at a cost of $80, Harold McCormick. 000,000 and of which his father was then chairman of Edith had what has been described as an "imperial the board. In February, 1973, Winthrop senior died of complex." She filled her Lake Shore mansion with ob cancer, his son at his side. As an only child, Winthrop jects from royal households, including Napoleon's com Paul has inherited the bulk of his father's fortune, plete dinner service. In 1918, she went to Switzerland making him one of the richest of the cousins. to undergo Jungian analysis and met a young man with But Bobo's marriage to Winthrop was the exception whom she formed a lifelong "platonic" relationship. to the rule. Most Rockefellers marry other heirs and Her husband divorced her in 1921 and married a Poiish heiresses. If sometimes there is not much money in the opera singer. Her son, Fowler, at age thirty-two, mar match, there is a lot of old American pedigree, and ried his best friend's fifty-three-year-old divorced pedigree can be an asset in forging good future con mother, the former wife of James Stillman, brother of nections. This is not to say that the Rockefellers a(e those two Stillman sisters who married into the B undemocratic in their choice of mates. It's. just that Rockefellers. they don't make it a point to look for poor people to Edith's second daughter, Muriel, dabbled in the the marry. 'Vho does? Besides, if you are a born winner, atre, then in 1931, at age twenty-eight, married Elisha your instinct is to keep winning. So John D. III mar Dyer Hubbard, a fifty-three-year-old gentleman farmer ried Blanchette Ferry Hooker, a Hooker Chemical and from Connecticut. When informed of ;,Iuriel's engage Ferry Seed heiress; Nelson married Mary Todhunt~r ment a day before her marriage, broth~r Fowler toid Clark, a Philadelphia Main Liner; Laurance married reporters, "This is news. I never heard of Hubbard." Mary French, whose grandfather, Frederick Billings, The marriage lasted five years until Hubbard's death in had been president of the Northern Pacific Railroad; 1936. They had no children, but in 1939 ;\·1uriel adopted and David married Margaret McGrath, whose father two. During the war she joined the WAC's and be was a partner in the Wall Street law firm of Cad came a sergeant. Meanwhile, Fowler went to court to walader, vVickcrsham & Taft. get the adopted children away from her on the grounds Most of the fourth-generation cousins--of whom that :'.Iuriel was unfit to be a mother. One of the chil there are nine males and fourteen females-have al dren described to reporters how his adopted mother had ready married. As of this writing, seven have yet to thrashed him with a switch on bare skin. The court marry. Some have even been divorced and remarried. ruled against :'luriel and she lost the children. A few Which means that one Rockefeller may be eligible sev years later, she adopted four (Contim.ed on page 158) biologists, therapists, urologists, ob ogy who has observed some of the \\'ork a.;ing dwelled on Rockefeller's stetricians and psychiatrists cooperat but has not participated in it , says that H daug-hters, it is perhaps well to ing as the need for each has m'isen, he has seen no convincing e\'idence of note that the Rockefellers are \'CI',' Dr. Fahim's enthusiasl\, has proved in any undesirable physical s ide effects of much a. patl'iarchy, \vith male chau fectious, though most of those cooperat vasectomy, "even among men vasecto vinism given a somewhat rO~'al c'- ' ~Gl' ing in or observing the effort have re mized twenty-five ~'ea rs ago," bu t ing. Take John D. IV, for example, tained a healthy measure of scientific agrees that a safe, reversible heat con who married Senator Charles Percy's restraint. traceptive would put vasectomy out of daughter in 1967. He has been sin.l';lcd Dr. Joseph Lamberti, professor of competition, While he finds Dr, Fahim's out of the twenty-three fourth-genera psychiatry and director of the univer results "promising" and sa~'s he is com tion cousins for speci'al "crown prince" sity's Human Sexuality Clinic, dis pletely convinced of the honesty of the treatment, strictly on the basis of tra counts the occasionally reported psy researchers involved, he cautions against ditional patriarchal succession. He is chological traumas of vasectomy, but overoptimism until more research has the only son of J.D.R. Jr:s oldest son, believes that " a reversible heat tech been done, Actually, he is younger than ~e!son'~ nique, if all pans out, would be far Dr. Fahim himself, though occasional t\\·o sons, Rodman and Steven, and all superior to vasectomy," There is noth ly given to sweeping and grandiose pre have exacth' the same amount of Rock ing inherent in the technique, he adds, dictions, frequently calls for caution. efeller blood in them. But John D. I\' that should present any psychological "Things look very good now," he con has been programmed from . birth to obstacles to its acceptance among males, cludes, "but we mLlst still perform com unders tand that the nam ; he bears Dr, Doyle, who characterizes his at plex, long-term genetic and biochemical carries \\'ith it certain social and falll titude as "one bordering on optimistic tests on a large number of sub.iects. We i1y ~igniflcance, a significance in no enthusiasm," nonetheless cautions that mustn't be hast~· . \Ve don't want this \\'ay lessened by the fact that he is "years of work may still be ahead of liS to be like The Pill and now, perhaps, commonly called Jay. before we can say with certainty that vasectomy, where troubles begin to "As a boy," he says, "I was told that this is a thoroughly safe and reliable manifest themselves years after mil I should make up my own mind \vheth technique," lions of people have already become er I \"anted to carryon the tull name. Dr. Gilbert Ross, a professor of urol- involved." -Itt which I think stands for public sen'ice, a sense of r esponsibility, and a high standard of demand on ollcself. \\'hen 1 was twenty-one, I wrote 'n letter to HOW TO MARRY A ROCKEFELLER my father sa,'ing I wanted the name (Continued frail! page 117) more, the that purpose made large gifts to and and responsibility." ones that wound up splitting her for for them, my oldest daughter, Bessie, It is probabl,\' this sort of thing' tune with Lincoln Center. the mother of my granddaughter Mar which led .-\bb,· Rockefeller, thirt,'-onc Rockefeller's oldest daughter, Bes garet, was not living." year,old daughter of D,\\·itl. to bl'C'o ll1e sie, married Professor Charles Augus J,D.R.'s third daughter, _-\Ita, mar a fiel',. wOl\\en's libber. You m igilt as tus Strong, son of a Baptist clerg'y ried E, ParmaJee Prentice, a Chicago weil stri:;e her vfr ,'our list of eligibic:,. man, in 1889, She died in Cannes, in lawyer who late r also made a name for She has bc(::o quotl·d as saying" that 1906, at the age of forty, half mad, himself breeding milk herds on the "}o\"e IJl~ t\\"eel\ a 1111:111 ",nd \Y0I1111 n i:-=; The one child of the marriage, 1\Iar couple's 1200-acre farm in the Berk debili:ating and c-ountenevolutionan· ... garet, became estranged from her phi-. shires, \Vhen Mrs. Prentice died in What's it like to be a Rockdl'l l "r': losopher-writer father, who spent the 1962 at ninety-one (hel' husband had Laurance's daul!htcr Lucy told a rt: rest of his life in his villa in Fiesole, died in 1955 at ninety-two) the princi porter in 1~i)~) , "1 think I 'l ~' nr,t a\\an' Italy. In 1927, Margaret married the pal of her trust fund was divided ness of being a Roc ke("l k r is n,S()Cia l Marquis de Cuevas, \\'hose title The among their thl'ee children. One of ed \\'ith g-oing to school in our Cadil New York Times snidely reported \\'as them, .1, Rockefeller Prentice, had lac. I used to ;;Iide Ul)\\'n onto the fluOl' not listed in the A/lllallach de Gotha. achieved notoriety in 1925 for working when we got llear Brl'~r1e,' and st~\\ ' He later had a ballet cOl1lp~ny, though, his way through Ya le as a switchboard hidden until the challfl'clll' ga\'" me tht' Of all the Rockefeller marriages, the operator. He finalI~ ' became a Chicago signal, anel then I got out. I was \'el'~' De Cuevas malTiag'e is the one most Ja\\'yer like his father and in 1941 seif-conscious about being a Rocke shrouded in mystery. When Margaret's married his office receptionist. In 19G8, fellef." father was asked to confirm a report his daughter, Abra, a working reporter Lucy never studied ,-\lllerican hi s that his daughter had been married se \\'ith the Chicago SWI- Til/'es , marricd tor,' because she didn 't \\'"nt to sit ill cretly to George de Cuevas, he said, .1 on Stephen A'nderson, a fello\\' re jl- c1,,:;s and risk hear;n~' her .[!l'l'; ,t "I'm not in close touch with her. She is porter. So you never know where you're granc.ifather described as a robber bal' able to take care of herself." The Til/les going; to find a Rockefeller, At the next on. Another unmarried female cousin (June 6, 1937) further noted: "When desk, perhaps, has gone so far as to change her name Miss Strong was married to George de Of Rockefeller's three daughtel's, to escape being- a Rockefeller. Cuevas, it was reported that he hall Alta seems to have been the most sen Hope Aldrich Rockefeller Spencer, been an associatc in a business ven sible and serene, And she seems to have Ja,"5 younger sister, has expre' oed the ture with Prince Youssoupoff, one of a passed on these traits to her own problem this way: "In many wa~ ' s, in group of Russian noblemen who killed daughter, Madeline. who married Ben growing up as a Rockefeller, I li\'ed the monk, Rasputin." De Cuevas dicd jamin deRacey Gilbert in the late with a tag, just as a Jew or a l\'"egTo, in 19GL, but no notice of his death or 1930's. In a phone conversation with I sensed what it was like to be dis obituary appeal'ed in The Times, Mrs. Gilbert, I learned that she has in criminated' against a nd ha\'e people it was t o" Margaret de Cuevas and stilled in her own s ix chiluren a deep ignore or accept ,'ou as part of a class her two children that John D. Rockefel respect fOl' wOl·k and a sense of self or' group rather th"n as an individual. ler' bequeathed his resiunal estate when reliance. lIer two daughtt-rs are in 1'1\\ not s uggesting b~' any means that he died in 1937 at t.he age of ninety volved in the arts and her sons are in I was d iscriminateu against in the seven. It wasn't much, considering; construction and toy manufacturing, same \Va,', but I think this is \\'h~ ' I only $Z5,OOO,OOO. Explaining' the be On the matter of marriag:e she has ad have an empathy for certain kinds of quest, Rockefeller wrote: vised them to malTY people they love. people, I l' elt often that when p~ '.lplc "I am setting up this trust for my Ccrtainly not to marry for the wrong heard the name Rockefdlcr, they ne\' granddaughter Man~'arct anrl hCl' de reasons: Il\onc~' or advancement. \Vhat er saw the person nameu Hope," sccndants to the exclusion of my othcr about people who may want to man,' In describing her cOllsins, Hope \\'ent g-randchildren and their llesccndants thelll for their money, I asked. "They're on to ~ay: "OUl' ;..:·"neration has all the becausc, \\'hen the time came th<1t I' '·er.\' intuitive a bout that," she l"<' elements of the new American m d in.:; felt it \\'isc to place upon I\\~' children plied. .-\nu , she continued, "this ~01"t ot pot. T here i di\'er :>ir,\ n nd in d ~ p ~n the res pl!llsibilit.\· of o\\'nil\:':: a nd ad thing tends to reveal it 5elt, don't you delll:€:. ,-\nu h e re' i" tt b \'t'r~' str"n!.! lllini:Hl' r ing ~lIb~tc. lI l tial ;-; l l i ll:-; <' lnd i'or th ink '.'" :S(: 1\ '(' or ~ (Jcial (olll( ~ ~ i >- y. \\· .... · !·i.,: \ . (\ j,:. l:!
158 ESQ'JIRE: JANUARY on the side\\'alks-not riding in Rolls worked for an insurance company, In mother to lI1ak e, but it \\'as t he onh' Royces. We're not going to skip any April. 1959, she I'eturned to her home way Dr. ;\Iurphy would f ree '1(: r t~ long' roaus because we have money." in Soegne, a tiny fi~hing villag'e on the marry the go\'ernor. Latr: r att '-" :Ir:~ by Daviu Rockefeller's son David Jr" southern coast of 1'\on'.'a~· . \Yhen Ste Happy to regain custody of t 1:e young who is now an arts administrator for the ven graduated frol1l Princeton that est child failed, but better \'i~itHt : on Boston Symphony Orchestra and acti\"(~ .Jul~·, he uought a ring and took off for rights were agreed on. in other cu Itu ral organizations, de Norway to ask Anne-Marie to marry In lD63, Anne-;\Iarie gave birth to a scribed the cousins' situation from the h illl. A nne-~Ial'ie agreed. daughter, Ingrid. In ~Ia~', 1964, Happy male point of view: "In my generation, " My mothel' said," she told the press, gave birth to Ing rid's uncle, !\elson Jr. the girls mostly want to lead private "that ~if it I'eally is love between you Later that year, .-\nne-;\Ial·ie, not to be lives and we boys haven't yet been over and Steven, and if you think marriage outdone, produced l1llother daug hter, come by a feel i ng that we s hou ld give to him will bring you happiness, we will Jennifer, and Ste\'en entered Cvlumbia our lives to the family. The family as a not urealll of standing in your way.''' Uni\'ersity to get his doctorate in : :leol family is a good thing, but the family One of the local townsfolk, on getting ogy. In 1966, Ann Rockefeller P i~r 5 0n as a business is inclined to be puzzling. her first look at a r eal li\'e Rockefeller left her husband and got a div(\rce in Basically, it's a very curious opera heir, told 11 reporter, "You certainly Mexico. In 196i, Happy presented the tion. My father has never put any pres wouldn't think he was a millionaire governol' with another boy, ;\Iark Fitler. sure on me to get involved in the fam when you look at his clothes. His shoes That same year Anne-:'>Iarie Jecideu ily affairs, though he has hinted that especially. They are aWful-old, dirty to become active in helping- the gO\' there would be plenty to keep me busy tennis shoes." emor win the Republican nomination if I felt inclined. The one thing he has The lIIaniage took place on August fO I- the Presidency. She organized a stressed is that whatever anybody does 22, with Nelson and his family flying Scandinavian-American comlllittee fo r he'll enjoy it if he does it hard enough. to Norway for the church ceremony. Rockefeller and tl'a vded across the Hard work, my father believes, is the After a honeymoon on the family yacht, country getting fellow Scandinavians to essential." the Norwegian Cinderella settled dowll support her father-in-law. During- a For most of the cousins, being rich to the business of creating little mil stop in ?lladison, Wisconsin, she met a n simply means having the additional lionaires, while Steven enrolled in the official of the local Rockefeller COIll burden of doing something with all the Union Theological Seminar)', mittee, a businessman of l'\ orwcgian money they've got. Nelson's oldest son, In May, 1960, Steven's grandfather, extraction who manufactured ic e-\'end Rodman, who is president of the fam J .D.R. Ji-., died at the age of eighty ing machines and walk-in coole rs. ily's divers ified investment company, six, leaving a residu a l estate of $ 160, Whether it s tarted lIIercl~' as a strong International Basic Econom ic Corpo 000,000. Two lllOnths later, Anne-Marie yearning- for something ~orwe!!iHn or ration (I.B.E.C.), put it this way: gave birth to Ste\'en Jr. Then in ,",0 whether it was 10\'e at first sight. we "After the firs t million, you learn you vember, 1961, came the bombshell. Her have no way of kno\\'ing. But Sl'\'cn have all this money, and you buy what in-laws (l\elson and Mary) had -decid teen 1II0nths later, Anne-;\Iarie's .
160 ESQUIRE: JANUARY