Patricia Alden Austin Taylor "Pat" Buckley (July 1 1926–April 15 2007) was an American socialite noted for her fundraising abilities, her striking beauty and height of just under six feet. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia to a wealthy family, she had tutors and private schooling. She was one of the three children of Austin Cotterell Taylor, a self-made industrialist, rich from lumber and mining. Her mother, Kathleen Elliott, daughter of the chief of police of Winnipeg, was a great beauty. Pat went to Vassar College in 1948, but left to marry William F. Buckley, Jr., the older brother of her Vassar roommate, Patricia Lee Buckley (later Bozell, the mother of conservative activist Brent Bozell). Aside from their home in Stamford, Connecticut the Buckleys also had an Upper East Side duplex in Manhattan, and leased the Chateau de Rougemont, a former monastery near Gstaad in Switzerland for the winters. Her very dark sense of humour was manifested when economist John Kenneth Galbraith brought Teddy Kennedy to visit the Buckleys at Rougemont one winter. Kennedy asked if he could borrow a car to go back to Gstaad. Pat replied: "Certainly not - there are three bridges between here and Gstaad."[1] In 1975 she was named to the International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame created by Eleanor Lambert. She served as chairwoman of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit from 1978 to 1995, making it a major event on the charity circuit. Other focuses included the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the New York University Medical Center, as well as AIDS causes and Vietnam War veterans. [2] She became a United States citizen in the early 1990s. Her only child is writer Christopher Buckley. [3]
Death
She died in Stamford, Connecticut, aged 80, after a period of ill health. Her husband reported in National Review that her "infirmities dated back to a skiing accident in 1965. She went through four hip replacements over the years. She went into the hospital a fortnight ago, but there was no thought of any terminal problem. Yet following an infection, on the seventh day, she died, in the arms of her son."
References
- ^ Sydney Morning Herald obituary
- ^ Curtis, Charlotte (November 20, 1984). Pat Buckley's Benefits. New York Times
- ^ NY Times obituary by Enid Nemy, April 16, 2007. "Pat Buckley, Writer’s Wife and Socialite, Dies at 80." New York Times
