Informal Ambassadors: American Women, Transatlantic Marriages, and Anglo-American Relations, 1865-1945

6. Candid Consul

candid consul 151 151 chapter six Candid Consul Nancy Langhorne Shaw Astor “America’s Daughter” America’s Daughter—Entwined with our race Has Struck the right path for women to pace The cry of the children—the sad long call Will be answered with feeling at Westminster Hall. J ust as Consuelo Vanderbilt’s high-profile life in England came to an end in 1920, one of the final American-born, British-wed women had just begun to make her impression on Great Britain. Lady Nancy Astor, wife of William Waldorf Astor , 2nd Viscount Astor, and the first woman to take a seat in the House of Commons , made significant contributions to the way Britons felt and thought about Americans during the first half of the twentieth century. Her Anglo-American marriage put her in contact with some of the principal political leaders and socialites of the period. Her candid personality and quirky sense of humor met with either howls of laughter or great disparagement from her fellow Britons. Her life functioned as nothing less than a bundle of contradictions. “She was an American divorcee who married a British peer, stood for Parliament as a Conservative, was elected seven times,” explains John Halperin, “lived in a house next door to the Libyan embassy that now sports a blue plaque with her name on it, and was buried under a Confederate flag.”1 This flood of paradoxes only begins to explain the Anglo-American life and legacy of Lady Nancy Astor. Nancy Witcher Langhorne was born in Danville, Virginia, on May 19, 1879, the same day that her future British husband came into the world, in New York City. Her parents, Chiswell Dabney Langhorne and Nancy Witcher Keene, both hailed from Virginia and held strong Confederate convictions throughout their lives. 152 informal ambassadors Her father, known as “Chillie” (pronounced “Shilly”), served in the Confederate army and married Nancy Keene in 1864, in the midst of the Civil War.2 The couple had eleven children, three of whom died in infancy. As the fifth surviving child and third of five daughters, as a child Nancy enjoyed the company of several siblings , a happy family, and the open spaces of rural Virginia. She reminisced fondly about her youth: “Nothing could be quite as lovely as that.”3 Following the war, in an effort to support his ever-growing family amid the financially and physically destroyed South, Chillie Langhorne held a number of jobs. The one-time tobacco planter and slave owner worked as a hotel porter, security guard, auctioneer, and poker player. When the railroad industry materialized as a viable means of financial independence during Reconstruction, Langhorne threw himself into the enterprise, making valuable contacts to win bids for various railroad projects and taught himself about the engineering side of the business along the way.4 The family experienced numerous financial ups and downs over the next several years. By 1892, Chillie had managed to attain a level of Lady Astor. PL2023. © Bettmann /CORBIS. candid consul 153 fiscal stability that allowed the Langhornes to move from the state capital of Richmond to Mirador, a sprawling, traditionally southern estate outside Charlottesville near the Blue Ridge Mountains.5 Nancy relished her years at Mirador, spending many hours a day on horseback with her four sisters: Lizzie, born in 1867; Irene, 1873; Phyllis, 1880; and Nora, 1889. Nancy also had three brothers—Keene, born in 1869; Harry, 1874; and William, always known as Buck, born in 1886—all of whom developed drinking problems. As the oldest sister, Lizzie acted as a second mother to all of the children. Irene, often considered the last great southern belle, married the artist Charles Dana Gibson , creator of the Gibson Girl. Closest to Phyllis, her immediately younger sister, and fiercely protective of her throughout her life, Nancy became very jealous of anyone or any relationship she perceived to challenge her position in Phyllis’s life. Phyllis remained the only person Nancy loved throughout her life.6 All of the children spent their days and nights doing little but riding horses at Mirador. Unlike Nancy’s Anglo-American sisters who typically received remarkable educations, the Langhorne girls received little in the way of formal tutelage, as the position of and expectations for most American women, particularly in the South, presented little reason for schooling. Throughout her life, Nancy lamented her lack of education and spoke openly about her own...