Searching for Rockefeller’s Wife and Mistress
and finding my dear friend Theo
I read yesterday’s obituary for Megan Marshack, probably the first famous Megan — before Rapinoe, Fox, Mullally, Thee Stallion, McCain, and Meghan Markle.
The name Megan Marshack probably doesn’t seem familiar to most readers here, but she was briefly on the front page of every U.S. paper in 1979.
Nelson Rockefeller, the most notable governor of my childhood, later a Republican presidential candidate and the Vice President during Gerald Ford’s first term (1974–1977), had been one of those Rockefellers, the Rockefellers.
He was the grandson of the world’s first billionaire. The name Rockefeller is almost synonymous with great wealth.
The 1930 jazz standard by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, On the Sunny Side of the Street, features the lyrics: “I’ll be rich as Rockefeller.”
The center of Manhattan even bears his family name — Rockefeller Center, consisting of an ice rink, a Christmas tree, and nineteen skyscraper office buildings containing Radio City Music Hall, NBC, and storied statuary and mosaics. It was also where my father had his office.
A politician and philanthropist, Nelson Rockefeller, often called by the nickname Rocky, liked the ladies.
