Mabel "Muffie" Wentworth Brandon Cabot (née Hobart; born c. 1936) is an American heiress and

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...

. During the 1980s she served as social secretary to

Nancy Reagan Nancy Davis Reagan (; born Anne Frances Robbins; July 6, 1921 – March 6, 2016) was an American film actress and First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989. She was the second wife of president Ronald Reagan. Reagan was born in N ...

. She is the mother of actress

Ali Wentworth Alexandra "Ali" Wentworth (born January 12, 1965) is an American actress, comedian, author, and producer. Early life Wentworth's mother, Muffie Cabot (née Mabel Bryant Hobart), was Nancy Reagan's White House social secretary from 1981 to 1983 ...

Early life

A member of an American family descended from passengers on the ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...

'', Cabot grew up in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, was educated at various

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

s, and graduated from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

. Her father, Richard Hobart, was an art collector and an investment banker with Loomis Sayles while her mother,

Janet Elliott Wulsin Janet Elliott Wulsin (October 17, 1894 – November 15, 1963) was an American early 20th-century explorer, whose accomplishments place her in line with contemporary women explorers such as Alexandra David-Neel. Janet January Elliott was reared in ...

, was a former explorer who undertook several

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and ...

-financed expeditions to

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

and

Outer Mongolia Outer Mongolia was the name of a territory in the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China from 1691 to 1911. It corresponds to the modern-day independent state of Mongolia and the Russian republic of Tuva. The historical region gained ''de facto' ...

Career and marriages

Wentworth and Brandon eras

Cabot's first husband was Eric Wentworth, a correspondent for ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. The couple divorced in 1964. After divorce, Cabot remained in residence at the pair's

Embassy Row Embassy Row is the informal name for a section of Northwest Washington, D.C. with a high concentration of embassies, diplomatic missions, and diplomatic residences. It spans Massachusetts Avenue N.W. between 18th and 35th street, bounded by ...

home now known as

Whitehaven Whitehaven is a town and port on the English north west coast and near to the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England. Historically in Cumberland, it lies by road south-west of Carlisle and to the north of Barrow-in-Furness. It is th ...

. In 1970 she married British national Henry Brandon, a longtime

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

correspondent for ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' once known as "the most powerful foreign correspondent in the USA". During this period the couple were known for hosting parties that were the highlight of the Washington social scene. CabotReagan

Despite being a lifelong

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

and personal friend of the

Kennedy family The Kennedy family is an American political family that has long been prominent in American politics, public service, entertainment, and business. In 1884, 35 years after the family's arrival from Ireland, Patrick Joseph "P. J." Kennedy be ...

, she was appointed social secretary to fellow Smith College alumna

in 1981, serving the

First Lady First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state fo ...

until 1985. She went on to sit on the boards of trustees of the

Phillips Collection The Phillips Collection is an art museum founded by Duncan Phillips and Marjorie Acker Phillips in 1921 as the Phillips Memorial Gallery located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Phillips was the grandson of James H. Laughlin, ...

and the Eureka Foundation, and served as president of the Washington office of the

public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...

firm of

Rogers & Cowan Rogers & Cowan is a global marketing and public relations agency. A division of the Interpublic Group of Companies (NYSE: IPG), the company is based in Los Angeles, with offices in New York, Miami, and London. History Rogers & Cowan was foun ...

Cabot era

Cabot was widowed from her second husband, Brandon, in 1993. In 1997 she married Louis Wellington Cabot, chair of the America's Cup Foundation and of the

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, commonly known as the Boston Fed, is responsible for the First District of the Federal Reserve, which covers New England: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and all of Connecticut except ...

, and a scion of the prominent Boston

Cabot family The Cabot family was part of the Boston Brahmin, also known as the "first families of Boston". History Family origin The Boston Brahmin Cabot family descended from John Cabot (born 1680 in Jersey, a British Crown Dependencies and one of the C ...

. In 2003, the

Aperture Foundation Aperture Foundation is a nonprofit arts institution, founded in 1952 by Ansel Adams, Minor White, Barbara Morgan, Dorothea Lange, Nancy Newhall, Beaumont Newhall, Ernest Louie, Melton Ferris, and Dody Warren. Their vision was to create a forum fo ...

published Muffie Cabot's ''Vanished Kingdoms: A Woman Explorer in Tibet, China, and Mongolia, 1921-1925'', an account of her mother's travels in early 20th-century Asia. Her early work on the book was encouraged by long-time friend

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A pop ...

who read a first draft prior to her death.

Personal life

Describing her mother's preferences, Ali Wentworth has explained that Cabot "will choose a bath over a shower, a play over a movie, and the ocean over a pool." She has said that Cabot's normal response to any stress in life is to check into the

Four Seasons Hotel Four Seasons Hotels Limited, trading as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, is an international luxury hotel and resort company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Four Seasons currently operates more than 100 hotels and resorts worldwide.D ...

; a few minutes after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

Cabot called Ali Wentworth, then living in New York, and recommended she immediately book a suite at the hotel. In addition to Ali Wentworth, Cabot's other children from her marriage to Eric Wentworth included a son and another daughter. With Henry Brandon she also had a daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cabot, Muffie 1936 births Living people People from Cambridge, Massachusetts Smith College alumni Writers from Massachusetts Place of birth missing (living people) Reagan administration personnel Massachusetts Democrats American socialites