Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, a wealthy arts and fashion patron, political benefactor and friend of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy died on Monday aged 103.
Mellon’s longtime attorney, Alexander Forger, said she died of natural causes at her 4,000-acre Oak Spring Farms in Virginia’s horse country, where she entertained royalty, stars and pols.
Friends said Mellon should be remembered more for her charitable contributions than for the 2011 scandal, in which John Edwards allegedly used campaign money, including $750,000 from an unknowing Mellon, to hide mistress Rielle Hunter and their child during his 2008 presidential bid.
A jury acquitted him on the campaign finance charge. Interior designer Bryan Huffman called Mellon a “remarkable person, the last standing true American aristocrat.”