Patricia Aldyen Austin Taylor Buckley (July 1, 1926 – April 15, 2007) was a Canadian-American socialite, noted for her fundraising activities. She was the wife of conservative writer and activist

William F. Buckley Jr. William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...

and the mother of writer Christopher Buckley, their only child.

Life

Born in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, to a wealthy family, Patricia Taylor had tutors and attended

Crofton House School Crofton House School, located in the neighbourhood of Kerrisdale in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, is a private university-preparatory school for girls that is tied for first place in the Fraser Institute's rankings of schools in British Co ...

. She was one of the three children of Austin Cotterell Taylor, a self-made industrialist, rich from lumber and mining. Her mother, Kathleen Elliott, was a daughter of the chief of police of Winnipeg. Pat went to

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...

in 1948 but left to marry William F. Buckley Jr., the older brother of her Vassar roommate, Patricia Lee Buckley. (Patricia Lee Buckley later married

L. Brent Bozell Jr. Leo Brent Bozell Jr. (; January 15, 1926 – April 15, 1997) was an American conservative activist and Roman Catholic writer, and former US Merchant Marine. He was a conservative Catholic, and a strong supporter of the anti-abortion movement. ...

, and they were the parents of conservative activist

L. Brent Bozell III Leo Brent Bozell III (; born July 14, 1955) is an American conservative activist who founded an organization called the Media Research Center whose stated purpose is to identify alleged liberal media bias. Bozell has been published in various lo ...

.) William and Patricia Buckley had one child, writer Christopher Buckley. Aside from their home in Stamford,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

, the Buckleys also had a Park Avenue duplex in

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 ...

and leased the Chateau de Rougemont, a former monastery, near

Gstaad Gstaad ( ; ) is a town in the German-speaking section of the Canton of Bern in southwestern Switzerland. It is part of the municipality of Saanen and is known as a major ski resort and a popular destination amongst high society and the internati ...

, Switzerland, for winters. Her dark sense of humour was manifested when economist

John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through t ...

brought

Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

to visit the Buckleys at Rougemont one winter. Kennedy asked if he could borrow a car to go back to Gstaad. Pat replied, "Certainly not—there are three bridges between here and Gstaad." In 1975, she was named to the International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame created by

Eleanor Lambert Eleanor Lambert (August 10, 1903 – October 7, 2003) was an American fashion publicist. She was instrumental in increasing the international prominence of the American fashion industry and in the emergence of New York City as a major fashion ca ...

. She served as chairwoman of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Costume Institute The Anna Wintour Costume Center is a wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's main building in Manhattan that houses the collection of the Costume Institute. The center is named after Anna Wintour, the longtime and current editor-in-chief of ' ...

benefit from 1978 to 1995, making it a major event on the charity social circuit. Other focuses included the

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute– ...

, the

New York University Medical Center NYU Langone Health is an academic medical center located in New York City, New York, United States. The health system consists of NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Long Island School of Medicine, both part of New York University (NYU), and m ...

, as well as

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

veterans. She became a

United States citizen Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...

in the early 1990s.

Death

Patricia Taylor Buckley died in Stamford, Connecticut, aged 80, after a period of ill health. Her widower reported in ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...

'', following her death in April 2007, that her "infirmities dated back to a skiing accident in 1965. She went through four hip replacements over the years. She went into the hospital a

fortnight A fortnight is a unit of time equal to 14 days (two weeks). The word derives from the Old English term , meaning "" (or "fourteen days," since the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights). Astronomy and tides In astronomy, a ''lunar fortnight'' is ha ...

ago, but there was no thought of any terminal problem. Yet following an infection, on the seventh day, she died, in the arms of her son." Her son, Christopher Buckley, added "Sixty-five years of smoking cigarettes, with attendant problems of circulation, had taken their toll. A few days before, an operation to install a

stent In medicine, a stent is a metal or plastic tube inserted into the lumen of an anatomic vessel or duct to keep the passageway open, and stenting is the placement of a stent. A wide variety of stents are used for different purposes, from expandab ...

nto her leg... went wrong, and a mortal infection set in."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buckley, Patricia 1926 births 2007 deaths Philanthropists from New York (state) American socialites Canadian socialites Buckley family Canadian emigrants to the United States Deaths from lung disease People from Stamford, Connecticut People from the Upper East Side People from Vancouver Vassar College alumni William F. Buckley Jr.