Mollie Wilmot (née Netcher (May 9, 1923 – September 17, 2002) was an American philanthropist and socialite.

Biography

Wilmot spent her formative years in Europe where she studied art and achieved fluency in French. She graduated from Foxcroft School, a bucolic preparatory school in northern Virginia. Her grandmother, Mollie Netcher Newbury, launched her career at the Boston Store as a clerk and underwear buyer and was dubbed the 'Merchant Princess' in her position as owner of the Chicago department store. Wilmot divided her time between an apartment at

The Pierre The Pierre is a luxury hotel located at 2 East 61st Street, at the intersection of that street with Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan, New York City, facing Central Park. Designed by Schultze & Weaver, the hotel opened in 1930 with 100+ employees, n ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, an oceanfront mansion next to the Kennedy estate stretching along prestigious North Ocean Blvd. on

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intracoas ...

and a sprawling colonial property in

Saratoga Springs, New York Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 2 ...

, boasting to The Times Union in 1998 that she had been born at the Ritz Hotel in Paris "feet first, six weeks early and with all my eyelashes." Mollie was married three times, all of which ended in divorce. In 1947, she was married to Edward Albert Bragno (1910–1986). They divorced in 1960, and the following week, she was married to Albert Carlton Bostwick III (b. 1939), a son of Albert C. Bostwick Jr. and nephew of

Pete Bostwick George Herbert "Pete" Bostwick (August 14, 1909 – January 13, 1982) was an American court tennis player, a steeplechase jockey and horse trainer, and an eight-goal polo player. Biography He was born in Bisby Lake, New York to Marie L. Stokes a ...

. The wedding, which took place at her home in Chicago, was performed by Judge Julius Hoffman and the best man was New York attorney Roy Cohn. They divorced in 1967, and in 1970, she married Paul Wilmot Jr. Mrs

The ''Mercedes I''

Wilmot soared to prominence in 1984 the day after Thanksgiving when a 197-foot freighter, MV ''Mercedes I'', carrying ten Venezuelan sailors crashed into the seawall of her oceanfront Palm Beach mansion. Wilmot's staff served the sailors sandwiches and freshly brewed coffee in her gazebo and showered martinis upon journalists and photographers. The incident received national and international coverage.

Philanthropy

In her role as society hostess, Wilmot hosted an annual

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

cocktail party to benefit equine research at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

. Wilmot bequeathed a generous portion of her estate to the Palm Healthcare Pavilion, which endowed the Mollie Wilmot Children's Center located in West Palm Beach, FL and the Mollie Wilmot Radiation Oncology Center based in Saratoga Springs, NY. She also contributed to the

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company' ...

, The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and the National Museum of Dance and equine research at the Veterinary College of Cornell University.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilmot, Mollie 1923 births 2002 deaths 20th-century American philanthropists Foxcroft School alumni American expatriates in France