Re: CZ Guest obituary

**"Suzanne Pierot" s*@hvi.net**

Did CZ write her own columns and books?
Suzanne Pierot
----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Maxcy" <larrymaxcy@earthlink.net>
To: <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2003 5:18 PM
Subject: [GWL] CZ Guest obituary


> From the Los Angeles Times Nov. 10, 2003
>
> OBITUARIES
>
> C.Z. Guest, 83; Fashionable Socialite, Gardening Expert
>   From Staff and Wire Reports
>
> November 10, 2003
>
> C.Z. Guest, New York society maven and expert on horticulture who
> likened her garden to "a good and loyal friend," has died. She was 83.
>
> Guest died Saturday of natural causes at her home in Old Westbury, N.Y.
>
> Born in Boston to a wealthy investment banker, the former Lucy Douglas
> Cochrane adapted her name "C.Z." from the nickname "Sissy" given her by
> a brother.
>
> She became interested in plants as a child, following the family
> gardener around her parents' estate. Her gardening-centered writing
> career began late in life when she was recovering from a riding accident
> in 1976 and advised friends in lengthy telephone conversations about
> everything from landscaping to planting tomato seeds.
>
> The snippets of advice soon prompted her first book, "First Garden,"
> which boasted an introduction by her friend Truman Capote and
> illustrations by another close friend, Cecil Beaton.
>
> By 1978, Guest was writing a gardening column for the New York Post,
> which grew into a feature syndicated to some 350 newspapers across the
> country.
>
> The gardener's other books included one for children titled "Tiny Green
> Thumbs."
>
> Known for her cool blond, blue-eyed beauty and understated elegance, the
> 1937 debutante was a natural for the best-dressed list of the New York
> Dress Institute. Wearing designs by Mainbocher, Givenchy and Adolfo, she
> was on the list for several years in the 1950s until she was made
> ineligible by her elevation to the Fashion Hall of Fame.
>
> The eclectic philanthropist to such charities as the March of Dimes and
> hostess to such celebrities as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor also
> designed a fashion collection — principally cashmere sweaters — in 1985.
> In 1990 she marketed garden products, including a fragrant insect
> repellent spray.
>
> Guest was equally at ease in jodhpurs while riding her horses, formally
> gowned at a charity ball, or in sensible shoes walking the grounds of
> her Long Island estate, hounds at her side. She thoroughly enjoyed
> working with spades and trowels in her own gardens, whether she was
> tending orchids or vegetables.
>
> In her youth, Guest dabbled in acting after her selection as the glamour
> girl of the Massachusetts North Shore in 1939. She appeared in a 1943
> revue in Boston and in a 1944 Broadway revival of the Ziegfeld Follies.
> She also studied at 20th Century Fox's studio school in Hollywood, but
> never appeared in a movie.
>
> During that period, the ingenue visited Mexico, where artist Diego
> Rivera painted her nude. In 1947, when she married Winston Frederick
> Churchill Guest, a second cousin of Winston Churchill, her fiance's
> family reportedly bought the painting, which had been on display in a
> Mexico City bar.
>
> The couple also owned racing stables. Guest supervised the stables in
> Middleburg, Va., and her husband, an international polo star, was in
> charge of the stables in France. She personally exercised her horses
> most mornings and for several years competed in major horse shows.
>
> In 1962, Time magazine featured Guest on its cover as the model of horsy
> American high society.
>
> In 1984, she was named commissioner general of the American garden
> exhibit of the International Garden Festival in Liverpool, England, a
> memorial to those who died in World War II.
>
> Guest, who was widowed in 1982, is survived by her son, Alexander, her
> daughter, Cornelia; two stepsons, Winston and Frederick, and three
> grandchildren.
>
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