A Woman of Independent Means (43 page)

They have set the date of their wedding for February 21. February is usually a slow month on the social calendar and Andrew felt a big wedding would be a welcome diversion for all his friends. Nell and her family would prefer a small wedding. They have only recently moved here from Virginia and do not know many people. Also, although their background is impeccable, I suspect that like many aristocrats their resources may be somewhat limited. So I have suggested the wedding reception be held at the country club at my expense. After all, the wedding of my only son represents a certain social obligation for a woman in my position, and I feel it is only fair for me to assume the financial responsibility for an event that will be enjoyed primarily by my friends and family.

Nell and her mother and father are the only members of her family living here. Her brother Craig is a costume designer in Hollywood. He is designing his sister's wedding dress, and giving it to her as a wedding present. She showed me the sketch he sent from Hollywood and the dress is simply stunning.

You have not told me very much about Marian's young man beyond the fact that all of you are very fond of him. I hope Marian will bring him to Eleanor's dance and introduce him to us—and to Dallas.

Love,
Bess

November 10, 1935
Dallas

Dear Mr. Cunningham,

Though we have not been formally introduced, I have heard your sister speak of you so often I feel as if you are already part of the family. And your sketch of the wedding dress was all the introduction I could ask to your work.

Actually, it is your work that prompts this letter. My daughter, Eleanor, who is an artist in her own right (having studied painting in Italy, sculpture in Germany, and costume design in New York), is making her debut next week. At the end of the month I will be giving a dinner dance in her honor, and I would be very proud if she wore a Craig Cunningham original on this occasion. It is traditional for a debutante to wear her Idlewild gown again at her own party but my daughter is already flaunting tradition with her choice of escort so she might as well defy it in her dress.

Though I know you make a handsome living designing for films, I should think it would be to your advantage to develop a private trade as well. Surely it is unwise to depend solely on a profession as fickle as filmmaking for one's livelihood. The women who will be attending my daughter's dance are accustomed to paying a great deal of money for their clothes and I would be very happy to see someone so soon to be a member of my family profit from their extravagance.

I have on occasion purchased designer dresses in New York and I assume your prices are in the same range. However, I can afford to pay as much as any movie star, so do your best for my daughter.

Let me know at once if this proposition interests you and I will send measurements.

Sincerely,
Bess Steed Garner

February 2, 1936
Dallas

Mr. Harold D. Perkins
Editor
The Dallas Morning News
Dallas, Texas

 

Dear Hal,

I am distressed that you and your wife will be unable to attend my son's wedding next week, but of course I understand that the newspaper conference comes first.

However, the wedding is the subject of this letter. I do not know how carefully you read
The New York Times
but surely you have noticed that the society section, in cases where both families are equally prominent, often uses a picture of bride and groom leaving the church in place of the usual bridal portrait. Your society editor and my close friend Totsie Fineman informs me this is not the policy of
The Dallas Morning News
, but I am enclosing pictures of my son and his prospective bride on the steps of St. Matthew's Cathedral in the happy event that you decide to revise this policy before departing for the conference.

You might also suggest to your wife that those huge lilac bushes she planted as a border guard between our two houses would benefit from some judicious pruning. I would mention it to her myself but I never seem to see her.

Affectionately—as always,
Bess

July 18, 1936
Dallas

Mr. Walter Burton
The Manhole
4123 Amherst
Dallas, Texas

 

Dear Walter,

This letter is a formal apology for confronting you with an artichoke at dinner last night. No one should have to encounter his first artichoke in public and I am truly sorry for any embarrassment the experience may have caused you. However, I admired you for admitting so openly that you did not know what to do with it. To me education is a continuing admission of how much we do not know, and the more I see of the world, the more I realize how much I still have to learn.

I am very grateful for the happiness you have given my daughter in the past year, and I hope it will continue. She tells me the two of you have discussed marriage but you do not feel your financial position can support a proposal at this time. Caution is an admirable quality for a man in your position but, based on what I have seen of your character and ability in the past year, I would say your future in this community is assured. I would be very pleased to have you in the family, and my use alone of your legal services will assure you a substantial income. I have never had a lawyer I could consult freely, and I look forward to a professional relationship as well as a personal one.

I hope you and Eleanor will make an official announcement of your engagement soon and set a date for the wedding. Frankly, only a definite date in the immediate future can keep Eleanor at home. She has already written an art school in Vienna to inquire about their fall schedule. I have hidden her passport but she is threatening to apply for a replacement. Though I have twice brought her home from Europe, I might not be so successful the third time.

I would like to give you a corner lot I own on Mockingbird Lane as an engagement present and my wedding present will be the house we decide to build on it.

Devotedly,
Bess

June 20, 1937
Dallas

Mrs. Walter Burton
6824 Mockingbird Lane
Dallas, Texas

 

My darling,

Welcome home. I wanted a letter from me to be the first one you found in your mailbox when you returned from your honeymoon.

I spent the day after the wedding getting your house in order, putting away all your presents, making up your bed with your new monogrammed sheets, planting flowers around your front door to greet you on your return. I inspected every inch of the house and am well satisfied with it. The architect you chose made imaginative use of a limited space. You were right to insist on him, even though his fee seemed excessive to me at the time. It was wise of Walter to persuade you to delay the wedding until the house was completed. You would never have found an apartment with a double bathroom, and sharing a basin can create more friction in a marriage than sharing a bed.

I am glad now that you refused to go through with the big wedding I had planned and insisted on the small one at home. I will never again walk through my living room without seeing you in the exquisite dress you designed standing in front of the fireplace, with the sculpted angels you gave me for Christmas kneeling on the mantel, holding lilies in their clasped hands. In my mind they are praying for your happiness and each night now before I go upstairs I kneel there and add my prayer to theirs.

As we stood in the station waving until your train disappeared in the direction of New Orleans, Sam suddenly took me in his arms and announced we were leaving on a honeymoon of our own at the end of the week. In our marriage the usual order of things was reversed and Sam was a father first and then a husband. Now, with both my children married, we are husband and wife at last and already seeing each other through different eyes.

Sam has planned a wonderful trip by train through the Pacific Northwest and continuing by boat into Alaska, and to my delight and surprise, he insists on paying all our expenses. On all our previous trips we have shared costs, and of course I have paid for all the trips I have taken alone. I have no idea how much money he has. He always makes me sign our joint income tax return before any of the figures are filled in. However, I have a feeling he is on his way to becoming wealthy, and I look forward to sharing old age with him.

We will be gone all summer, so you and Walter will be able to begin married life without interference from in-laws. I could almost accuse Sam of planning this trip with that in mind, but whatever his motive, I'm glad we are going, and as soon as I seal this letter I will start packing my suitcase. So hello and good-bye.

All my love,
Mother

 

SEPTEMBER 3 1938
CIUDAD MONTE
MEXICO

MRS WALTER BURTON
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE HOSPITAL
DALLAS TEXAS
IF I HAD WINGS I WOULD BE THERE BUT MY HEART
TOOK FLIGHT ON HEARING OF SAFE ARRIVAL OF MY FIRST
GRANDCHILD WE ARE SAFE BUT STRANDED BY FLOODS
I ACHE TO SEE BABY

LOVE
MOTHER

SEPTEMBER 3 1938
CIUDAD MONTE
MEXICO

MR WALTER BURTON
SANDERS AND HARRIS LAW FIRM
210 MAIN STREET
DALLAS TEXAS
BAD CONNECTION MADE PHONE CONVERSATION IMPOS-
SIBLE STILL DO NOT KNOW IF GRANDCHILD IS GIRL OR
BOY WHATEVER IT IS PLEASE AMEND MY WILL SO IT
WILL INHERIT EQUALLY WITH MY CHILDREN I MAY NOT
GET OUT OF MEXICO ALIVE

LOVE
BESS

 

SEPTEMBER 3 1938
CIUDAD MONTE
MEXICO

BURTON BABY
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE HOSPITAL
DALLAS TEXAS
MY DARLING GRANDCHILD
AM DESOLATE THAT I WAS NOT IN DALLAS TO WITNESS
YOUR ARRIVAL BUT TAKE IT AS SIGN OF INDEPENDENT
SPIRIT THAT YOU DO NOT WAIT FOR ANYONE SAME
CAN BE SAID OF ME WE ARE GOING TO BE GREAT
FRIENDS I LOVE YOU ALREADY

GRANDMOTHER

 

 

September 7, 1938
Dallas, Texas

Dear Lydia and Manning,