Heiress Rachel "Bunny" Mellon Has Died
Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, the Listerine fortune heiress who married arts patron and philanthropist Paul Mellon, was a confidante of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and redesigned the White House Rose Garden, died March 17 at her home in Upperville, Va. She was 103.
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The Mellons donated more than 1,000 objects to the National Gallery of Art, including paintings by Cezanne, Degas and van Gogh. With Mellon’s sister and a family foundation, they also funded the construction of the gallery’s East Building, designed by architect I.M. Pei, in the 1970s.
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At 101, she found herself improbably drawn into the legal battle of John Edwards, the former U.S. senator and presidential aspirant charged with violating campaign finance laws.
Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, was tried in 2012 on charges that he took nearly $1?million in illegal campaign contributions from wealthy donors to support his mistress, Rielle Hunter, and conceal her from voters during his 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Prosecutors attributed more than $700,000 to Mrs. Mellon and $200,000 to Texas lawyer Fred Baron.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rachel-bunny-mellon-arts-patron-and-confidante-of-jackie-kennedy-dies-at-103/2014/03/17/383ac6da-c5db-11df-94e1-c5afa35a9e59_story.html
