Mary Eliza (Stone) Ware (1845-1923)

She was described by Harnett T. Kane in "Plantation Parade": She "brought to the pink palace not only her beauty, but also the taste and inheritance of an heiress. Traveling in Europe and America, she sent boatloads of material back to Louisiana: paintings, tapestries, escritoires, foot stands, armoires, wall-pieces-an interior splendid to fit the florid walls. And Belle Grove had a hostess with an air equal its potentialities.  She is pictured as a social woman, whose joy was the soirée, the assembling of 85-people at a table, the planning of a week-end party for 60-couples, with a tournament à la Walter Scott.  The river folk invariably recall her as attired in evening clothes: black velvets, décolleté (low necked dresses), with trains, and ropes of jewels and a diamond Lorgnette. With her dashing looks went a head of fiery red hair, which never faded.  She kept her figure, her air, and her scarlet tresses... (she was) followed, as was her custom at some of her fêtes, by two grinning Negro boys in Oriental costume, turbans and all... (on one occasion she) dropped a diamond earring at the dinner table; two men leaned over to hunt for it.  'Don’t bother, please,’ she smiled. ‘The servants will probably sweep it up in the morning.’”