Evening star., 1947-04-27
Long in Public Eye,
Mrs. Mclean Loved
To Be Talked About

To Be Talked About
Mrs. Evalyn Walsh Mclean, who
died last night, kept herself in the
. national limelight with more sue
cess and for a longer period than
the leading political figures of
Washington
Her death in her Georgetown
home, the new Friendship, marked
the end of a kind of lavish enter
tanning which was part of her life
and a custom which she alone of
Washington hostesses continued to
the present day.
Mrs. Mclean kept her name be-
fore the public with more consist
ency than the actresses of Holly
- wood, She was household word.
From the time she burst upon the
Washington scene SO years ago as
. the 11-year-old daughter of a gold
miner who was getting $1,000 day
out of the earth, she loved getting
herself talked about.
She did it with impishness as a
girl and disregard of only the
:. minor conventions as woman She
: was loyal wife under difficult cir
. cumstances and a mother devoted
. to her children.
: Psychologists called her an extro-
vert. She owned the famous Hope
/. diamond and wore it in Soviet Mos
q cow to give the Communist citv a
. capitalist thrill.
Told All in Autobiography.
= When she wrote her autobiogra-
: ply few years ago with the COL
. laboration of Boyden Sparks she
: told all, and frankly. In writing of
. her marriage she said:
My own preference, generally is
. for show. I should have been quite
willing, If anyone had proposed it,
Ito be married while hanging by my
: knees from the crosspiece of the
-spire of any well-known church."
Liked to Show Diamond.
: She liked to frighten guests by
{. showing them the Hope diamond
. and telling them the story of it's
= curse. Her own mother and Mrs.
. Peter Goelet of New York died
= year after handling it when she
first purchased it, she pointed out.
. When her 9-year-old son. VIM
/. son Mclean, was killed in 1919 by
a Model T Ford in the driveway of
-the old Friendship, now Mclean
.. Gardens, Morrell Goddard, editor
: of the Hearst Sunday supplement,
@ saw in it one of his great true
: life" stories. Using a full page he
. blazoned the story of how the Hope
-diamond had wreaked its vengeance
ION the son of the woman who
: bought it. All over the country
/. women voiced their amazement to
zone another that Mrs. Mclean
: could keep the cursed stone. But
she kept 1t and wore it continually.
Interested in Astrology.
: She was deeply interested in
= @aStrology and it was a reading of
/. the stars that caused her to inject
-herself in the Lindbergh kidnapping
cease. She gave CASTOR B. Means
: 100000 on his representation that he
ewas in touch with the kidnapers.
Z The discredited detective went to
. prison for taking her money. He
: died not long afterwards, while on
/. parole. and the money never was
: found.
. Mrs. Mclean was born in Denver
/. on August l, 1886, and she later
: wrote that her first memory of the
= two-room log cabin of her prospector
!. father, Thomas Walsh. An Irish
f. born wielder of the pickax, he found
/. a vein of free-milling gold in the
. Camp Bird Mine at Duray, Colo,
(. which had been worked for silver
+. and abandoned. Evalyn was then 10.
= She recalled resting her chin on the
: footrail of her brass bed-the log
: cabin quarters had been improved
.upon-and hearing her father con-
!. f1de in her. He said, Daughter, I've
: struck it rich"
!. 1t became the keynote of the
: family's life.
/. Met Mclean i'll Dancing Glass.
= The Washes, fabulously rich. de-
! scended on Washington in 1897
! Their first quarters were in the old
: Cochran Hotel. Evalyn was II. She
: met Edward Beale Mclean, also IL q,
/. whom she was later to marry, that
: winter in a dancing class in his
: mothers big house on I street. The
/. McLeanS were prominent in WASH
* ington society.
. A short time later the Walsh
: family rented a house at LIE Roy
: place and Phelps place NV. When
: she was IS, Evalyn and a brother,
: Vinson, realized they were going
+. to Europe for President Mckinley
: had appointed Thomas Walsh a
F. commissioner to the Paris exposi-
I. ton.
F.. Mrs. Potter Palmer, the queen Of
: Chicago society, was one of the
: commissioners and she became the
= Washes friend. But the social sue
: cess of the trip was when Commits
a sioner Thomas Walsh gave dinner
4. for King Leopold of the Belgians.
: The King was interested in gold
: mining. He hoped his Congo terri
. tory would produce strike as rich
+. as the Mr.. Walsh's Camp Bird in
. Colorado. Mr.. Walsh invited His
= : Majesty to come and see them in
= America. He accepted. Mr.. Walsh
: returned 70 Washington and built
:: a mansion at 2020 Massachusetts,
: avenue NV, to entertain the king.
= The giant, opulent Victorian man.
sion became a landmark In WASH
tngtou end is still standing Mrs