Background
Barbara Cushing Paley was born on July 5, 1915 in Boston, Massachussets, United States. She was the daughter of Katharine Stone Crowell and the well-known brain surgeon Harvey Williams Cushing.
Barbara Cushing Paley was born on July 5, 1915 in Boston, Massachussets, United States. She was the daughter of Katharine Stone Crowell and the well-known brain surgeon Harvey Williams Cushing.
Barbara Cushing Paley graduated from the exclusive Westover School in 1933.
In 1934 Barbara Cushing Paley made her debut into society, at the Ritz-Carlton in Boston, despite the fact that her father had lost his money in the stock market crash of 1929. Babe then left Boston for New York City where she secured an entry-level job at Glamour magazine. During the 1930's, while living in New York City, Babe and her two older sisters, Betsey and Minnie, made a sensation in New York high society and were known as the "Fabulous Cushing Sisters". Babe was the most beautiful and glamorous of the trio.
In 1939, Babe moved to Vogue, where she became a fashion editor and was frequently photographed by such legendary photographers as Horst P. Horst and Edward Steichen. Soon after the marriage Babe retired from Vogue. In 1943, Stanley Mortimer, her husband, joined the United States Navy. When he returned from the Pacific, he was drinking and having severe mood swings. Before her divorce became final in 1946, Babe began seeing the recently separated William S. Paley, who was also seeing socialite Janet Stewart. Commenting on the two romances became a favorite parlor game among New York society.
Then Babe had a severe attack of phlebitis and was hospitalized for a month. Paley visited her at the hospital every evening, bringing in dinners from the city's most elegant restaurants. In the hospital their relationship flourished. The wedding was followed by a grand honeymoon in Europe. They settled into a life in and around New York City, commuting between an apartment in the St. Regis Hotel and their estate on Long Island known as Kiluna Farm.
Babe's attention to detail also manifested itself in her extraordinary appearance. Her attention to clothes made her a regular on America's Ten Best Dressed List. In fact, she made the list so many times that in 1959, according to her husband, she asked that her name be dropped in order to "spare the children the joshing of their schoolmates".
In 1958 she was named to Fashion's Hall of Fame, which William Paley called "a perpetual honor. " Paley pretended to be indifferent to her fashion reputation, and she told Women's Wear Daily that lots of women go overboard on clothes. Yet author Truman Capote and radio personality Tex McCrary felt Paley's stylish position meant more to her than she let on. Babe Paley devoted her life to her demanding and successful husband, who once confided to New York Times society columnist Charlotte Curtis that Babe taught him how to handle himself in dealing with their high-society friends. Babe Paley died on July 6, 1978 at home of cancer the day after her sixty-third birthday.
Barbara Cushing Paley was an eminent socialite and one of the famous Cushing sisters. She was best known for her fashion style and her marriage to William S. Paley, founder of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). She was declared the best Dressed woman in the World in a poll taken by the New York Dress Institute and her sense of elegance set a standard for style-conscious women for three decades. Barbara was also known for her many lavish parties, which included many prominent people as her guests.
Quotations:
"Neatness - which is grooming, after all - is definitely the most important requirement".
"I like the sudden shock of non-sequitur color. Color, in fact, is my weakness".
"The look of being too deliberately dressed, with everything cautiously matching, always bores me".
"I'm still one of those persons who prefers to wear pants, especially for at-home entertaining".
Babe was described as a perfectionist. She was always impeccably dressed and well mannered. Barbara was tall, willowy brunette, blessed with beauty and wealth, had an unerring sense of good taste.
Quotes from others about the person
"She didn't want to be fashionable. She wanted to be fashion. " - McCrary
“I never saw her not grab anyone’s attention, the hair, the makeup, the crispness. You were never conscious of what she was wearing. You noticed Babe and nothing else”. - Bill Blass
"She was always perfection. Even if she wore jeans, a sweater and loafters, she made everyone around her look like slobs".
On September 21, 1940, Babe Paley married Stanley Grafton Mortimer, Jr. Mortimer was from an aristocratic American family that included John Jay, first chief justice of the Supreme Court, as well as one of the founders of Standard Oil of California. The Mortimers frequently entertained at home. They had two children. On May 29, 1946, Babe divorced Mortimer in Florida on the grounds that he was "habitually intemperate from the voluntary use of alcoholic liquors". Babe married William Paley on July 28, 1947, and became the stepmother of his two adopted children. The couple had two children.
