Annette de la Renta

Annette de la Renta (born December 24, 1939), an American philanthropist and socialite married to the fashion designer Oscar de la Renta.

Birth and childhood

Born Anne France Mannheimer and nicknamed Annette, she is the only child of German banker Fritz Mannheimer (1890-1939), who died before her birth, and his wife, Marie Annette Reiss (later known as Jane Engelhard, 1917-2004). Her German-born maternal grandfather, Hugo Reiss, was the Brazilian consul in Shanghai, China.

By ancestry, she is three-quarters German Jewish and one-quarter Irish.

In 1947, after her mother moved to the United States and remarried, Annette Mannheimer was adopted by her stepfather, Charles W. Engelhard, Jr., an industrial magnate, and became Annette Engelhard.

Marriages and family life

She married on 12 March 1960, in Bernardsville, New Jersey, her first husband, Samuel Pryor Reed (-2005). He was a vice president of Engelhard Industries, the minerals conglomerate, from 1960 until 1976, and later owned "American Heritage" magazine. The couple later divorced.

In December 1989, in La Romana, Dominican Republic, she became the second wife of the fashion designer Oscar de la Renta.

She has three children by her first marriage:
* Beatrice Anne Reed, who married (1) Roger Albert Morrison; (2) David Niven, Jr., a son of the actor David Niven, and (3) David Phelps a California real estate attorney.
* Eliza Reed, who married Alexander Lytton Bolen
* Charles Reed, who married Natalie Witogosky

She also has a stepson, Moises de la Renta.

Philanthropy

Annette de la Renta serves on the boards of the Metropolitan Museum, the New York Public Library, the Morgan Library and the Engelhard Foundation. She also served on the board of directors of Rockefeller University for 25 years.

Brooke Astor controversy

On 26 July 2006, Annette de la Renta was appointed temporary guardian of the 104-year-old Brooke Astor, a longtime friend, in the wake of elder abuse allegations being made against Astor's son, Anthony Dryden Marshall. On 13 October, 2006, de la Renta became permanent guardian.