- Evalyn Walsh McLean
Evalyn Walsh McLean (
August 1 ,1886 inLeadville, Colorado –April 26 . 1947 inWashington, D.C. ) was an American mining heiress andsocialite who was famous for being the last private owner of the 45-caratHope Diamond as well as another famous diamond, the 94-caratStar of the East . She also was the author, with Boyden Sparkes, of a memoir, "Father Struck It Rich".She was the only daughter of Thomas Walsh, an Irish immigrant miner and prospector turned multimillionaire, and his wife, Carrie Bell Reed, a former schoolteacher.
In 1908, she married
Edward Beale McLean , the heir to the "Washington Post " and "Cincinnati Enquirer " publishing fortune. They had four children: Vinson Walsh McLean (anepileptic who died at the age of nine, following a traffic accident), Edward Beale McLean Jr, John Roll McLean II, and Emily Washington McLean (who later changed her name to Evalyn Walsh McLean). The couple, whose marriage was rent by infidelity and substance abuse (he was a spectacularalcoholic , while she was addicted tomorphine ), divorced in 1929, though the decree was invalidated due to the divorce having been illegally obtained inLithuania . Ned McLean eventually became the common-law husband ofRose Douras , a sister of theHollywood film star Marion Davies , before dying in a mental institution.The couple's notoriety is reflected by their appearance in
Cole Porter 's title song to the 1934 musical, "Anything Goes "::"When Missus Ned McLean (God bless her):Can get Russian reds to "yes" her,:Then I suppose:Anything goes."
Evalyn Walsh McLean was also a friend and confidante to
Alice Roosevelt Longworth andFlorence Harding , the wife ofWarren G. Harding , the 29th President of the United States.The site of her summer house, Friendship — a sprawling country mansion built for her father-in-law by
John Russell Pope and which was located on Tenleytown Road, N.W. — is now a condominium complex known asMcLean Gardens . (The original house was demolished in the 1940s though some of the property's garden features remain intact, as does theGeorgian-style ballroom.) A later residence, also known as Friendship, is located at the corner of R Street, N.W. and Wisconsin Avenue, and remains a private home. Her childhood home, a grandiose Second Empire-style mansion at 2020 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., is now theIndonesia n embassy.McLean was a victim of
Gaston Means , a formerF.B.I. agent, murder suspect, andgrifter , who claimed that he had set a deal to free theLindbergh baby for a ransom of over $100,000 (USD) which Evalyn McLean advanced him. Means disappeared with the money only to resurface months later in California and ask McLean for additional funds. Suspicious of Means' activities, she helped lead police to Means, who was also wanted for other various crimes and civil actions. This ultimately lead to his conviction and imprisonment onlarceny charges.Evalyn Walsh McLean died at 60 of pneumonia and was buried in
Rock Creek Cemetery ,Washington D.C. , in the Walsh family tomb.External links
* [http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/hope/hlevel_1/h3_ewm.html The Hope Diamond, PBS]
* [http://www.embassy.org/gallery/historical/history004.html The Thomas Walsh Mansion, Embassy Row, Washington DC]
* [http://www.amazon.com/s?search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Evalyn%20Walsh%20McLean Queen of Diamonds, Joseph Gregory McLean]
* [http://famousdiamonds.tripod.com The World of Famous Diamonds]
*YouTube|MXYchE0lfw4|Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian
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