Mary Wadsworth Lummis (1917-2015)

She grew up near Asheville, North Carolina. In New York she was accepted into Radcliffe College, but being the Depression, instead she took a job as a fashion model with Bergdorf Goodman. After the death of her first husband, she became the fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue magazines. She later worked for Tiffany, Black Starr & Gorham and Bulgari, before designing her own jewellery for her own clients. In 1960, she won her first three design awards at the De Beers Diamonds International competition. She spoke Spanish, French and Italian. She loved playing the piano and classical music; and, she also became an accomplished sculptor and painter. In 1966, she married J. Gordon Douglas, Jr. and they lived in Newport, Rhode Island; Santa Barbara, California; and, at his estate in Millbrook, New York, before they moving to Charleston where she lived for the last 25 years of her life.