The Civilized Life in Sarasota: Junior League Sustainers' Legacy Luncheon

The Junior League Sustainers' Legacy Luncheon is always a day filled with love and friendship. We celebrated 10 years of fabulous speakers on Tuesday afternoon. Cheryl Burstein was the chair and I was honored that she asked me to be the honorary chair, as I had created the event and chaired it for the first five years.

I was privileged to give a little history about the Legacy Luncheon during the event. It really started as a way to bring all 700 of our members together to celebrate our combined Junior League legacy. My one wish for the luncheon was that when everyone left, they "felt the love" of their JL membership. As a past president of the League, my membership has always meant a great deal to me. Many of my best friendships were made during League activities. I am also so proud of the women who came before me. The Junior League of Sarasota started in 1957 as the Junior Welfare League until our city had grown sufficiently large enough to be considered for membership in the Junior League in 1976. Many of those women from that time really made many of our charitable organizations into what they are today. The Junior League of Sarasota has a long and proud history and I am so happy to be a part of it.

Our speaker this year was author Kati Marton who spoke about her book Hidden Power - Presidential Marriages That Shaped Our History. The book starts with Edith and Woodrow Wilson and ends with Laura and George Bush. Kati told us her new French edition also has a chapter about the Obamas.
A few tidbits from her speech - Bill and Hillary Clinton have a true love story and is not a marriage only for political purposes. Also, Nancy Reagan was good at firing people and Ronald Reagan never fired anyone in his life.

I will tell you more about the book next week in my book club posting. We are reading it right now and I will be the facilitator at our meeting. Kati was kind enough to give me a list of questions to ask during our discussion. How fabulous is that?!

A few tidbits about Kati herself...She was married to two powerful men, Peter Jennings who is the father of her two children, and Richard Holbrooke, from whom she was recently widowed. When the names of her husbands were announced during her introduction, the crowd audibly oohed and aahed, which I thought was kind of interesting. It reminded me of our nation's First Ladies. Kati is an accomplished woman in her own right, but when her husbands names were announced, that's when people were really impressed, kind of like how First Ladies are seen.

Others seen at the luncheon and not photographed below were Joan Campo-Liga, Cindy Bailliette, Michelle Crabtree, Betsy Bagby, Irene Bagby, Sue Hoffman, Caroline Lawrence, Tish Fitzgerald, Cerita Purmort, Sheila Lirtzman, Debbie Shapiro, Jane Smiley, Susan Rife, Olivia Thomas, Kim Wheeler, Stacey Corley, Mary-Lou Moulton, and on and on.