By Judy Carmack Bross
Catharine Hamilton in silver in the Versailles gardens with husband David at her left.
“What I will always remember about Catharine Hamilton was her extraordinary ability to transform admiration into action. With understated elegance and devotion, she built bridges between two nations through a shared love of beauty. Catharine believed that art and culture could unite people when politics could not—and she proved it.”—Kristin N. Smith, Executive Director of the American Friends of Versailles, paying tribute to Catharine Hamilton who died October 7.
Catharine Hamilton with Brigitte Macron, former educator and wife of French President Emmanuel Macron.
While many are remembering Catharine Hamilton’s international accomplishments in founding the American Friends of Versailles, we wanted to let Catharine herself describe her mission and memories, taken from the many columns she graced in Classic Chicago.
“Travel is my middle name, and I love to listen to people from all over the world. Listening is key, no matter wherever you are. Memorable hostesses I think are kind-hearted most of all, they are welcoming and know now to get along,” Catharine Hamilton told Classic Chicago in 2023 at the time of The American Friends of Versailles 25th anniversary.
Catharine Hamilton: among many admirable qualities, a memorable hostess.
Chicago is mourning the loss of a great American beauty who fits her definition of a memorable hostess and so much more. She refined that art at her chateau in Normandy once the home of Consuelo Vanderbilt and at her Paris pied a terre overlooking the Champs-Élysées as well as her Chicago apartment where she entertained in rooms once owned by two generations of Wrigleys which she decorated with French antiques and priceless paneling. Learning of Catharine’s death recalled many of these wistful memories of Catharine as hostess for those lucky enough to be her friends. But Catharine as hostess it is only part of her fascinating and fruitful legacy.
When two former Texans Catharine and David Hamilton moved to Chicago from New York many years ago glowing words about their involvement with significant causes preceded them. They were the couple everyone wanted to meet, every board wanted to enlist. Though their philanthropic passions were to spread to Versailles they never stopped their love for our city and their commitment to cultural and medical organizations that truly matter here. With Catharine’s death following David’s several months ago, Chicago has lost a person who never failed to live up to her mighty expectations and never stopped caring.
Growing up in an Amarillo oil dynasty, Catharine was shaped by her mother Tennessee Whittenburg Cline, one of those strong Texas women like Lady Bird Johnson who knew how to lead in volunteer organizations–for Tennessee, the Junior League International–and business. That generation of Texas women knew how to use Robert’s Rules of Order to rule a room and how to enlist the people needed to get the job done.
Catharine Hamilton on Seine dinner cruise with her brother Richard Cline, Jr.
Catharine felt her faith deeply and loved to recap Moody Church sermons which had inspired her. What a joy when you would get a call out of the blue with a “how are you darlin’, I have been thinking about you.” I remember my late husband John telling of her walking through a snowstorm–fur coat flapping–to deliver a casserole down a snow-blocked street to a family whose mother had died.
Catharine liked to joke about the Texas twang in her French and always led with merriment. She wore gorgeous clothes with the effortlessness of a Fitzgerald heroine. The Hamiltons’ holiday party, with a magnificent buffet in a dining room with splendid paneling brought over from an 18th century home in the Place Vendome once owned by a mistress of Fragonard, orchids everywhere framing a lakefront view, always welcomed hundreds of their friends. She was a fine writer who penned novels that could have made it to best seller lists should she have decided to publish them. She preferred her opportunity to be with people as opposed to the solitary life writing brings. “I worked for Sotheby’s for several years and am comfortable speaking in public,” she told us.
Catharine Hamilton and le Vicomte de Rohan, American Friends of Versailles co-founders, at the 25th anniversary gala.
We asked her longtime friend and fellow volunteer Libby Horn to tell us more about her amazing accomplishments in Chicago and France.
“Catharine was a member of many cultural boards in Chicago and other cities, but she will probably be remembered most as a longtime supporter of many French-American organizations in Chicago and the United States. When she first came to the Chicago area, she was recruited to assist with the Alliance Francaise de Chicago’s fund-raising efforts. Her husband, David, was a member of the Board of Directors, and encouraged Catharine to participate by serving as Chairwoman of several major fund-raising events. One of the most well-known and financially successful of these was the 1989 Gala evening, sponsored by Marshall Fields, featuring Audrey Hepburn and Hubert de Givenchy as the honored guests. Following this success, she was asked in
1994 to form a Woman’s Board which continues today as the primary source of support of this organization that among its many cultural and educational activities, partners with seven Chicago public schools to augment their cultural and language programs.
David Horn, then President of the Alliance Francaise de Chicago’s Board, with Catharine at the gala celebrating the 125th anniversary of the Alliance Francaise in Chicago.
“Catharine was selected to be the first American to serve of the board of Versailles, Les Amis de Versailles, and in 1998 she organized and founded the first outside support group for the Chateau, The American Friends of Versailles. The home base and office for the organization are in Chicago, but she called on her many friends from Chicago and around the United States to assist and support the organization. Among the many projects sponsored and financed by this group at Versailles are the total rebuilding of the Le Bosquet des Trois Fontaines (a large walled garden consisting of three lavish but different fountains), the restoration of the Pavilion Frais (a private dining retreat near the Petit Trianon covered with elaborate trellis work) and the restoration of the ceiling in La Salle des Gardes de la Reine (an elaborate painted ceiling in the palace adjacent to the Queen’s Bedroom).”
The Trois Fontaines Bosquet, Grove of Three Fountains, from 1677 restored by the American Friends of Versailles.
Libby Horn continued:
“But Catharine’s greatest gift to anyone who knew her was her warmth and friendship. Once you met her you had a friend for life. She never had dinner in a restaurant that she did not know the people seated next to her by the end of the evening, had their contact information and had probably added them to the list for her famous Christmas party. For all who had the great good fortune to be her friend, they have suffered a huge loss. She will be missed by many and long remembered in Chicago.”
To Catharine, her family meant everything–her daughters Tennessee Alexis and Elizabeth, her extended Texas family with nieces and nephews she adored. She spent much time in Dallas caring for her mother in her later years.
Daughters Tennessee Alexis Hamilton and Elizabeth Hamilton Deutsh with Whitney Smith, center, at Versailles.
Catharine Hamilton speaking at the American Residence in Paris.
In 2023 Catharine, who received the French Legion of Honor in 1998, told us that her love affair with France began when her mother Tennessee took her there as a high school graduation present at a time when the only second language she had studied in school was Spanish.
“That’s when my personal love affair with Versailles began. I was delighted when asked if I would become a member of the Board of Les Amis de Versailles in the early 1990’s by our good friend Le Vicomte de Rohan (Olivier). In 1997, he, my husband, David, and I were walking through the gardens when we came upon the Trois Fontaines Bosquet. It had lain in ruin since 1830 and was sad and longing to be restored. We hoped that there was perhaps some way we could help. After meeting with Hubert Astier, then President of the Château de Versailles, a seed was planted and the American Friends of Versailles was born.
“Almost every American who visits France will visit Versailles. More than any other secular monument outside the United States, Versailles has direct historical, political and artistic links to our country. The magic continues to captivate our imaginations. Versailles inspires the soul in all facets of the arts, architecture, gardens, fountains, paintings, sculpture, boiseries, furniture, tapestries, carpets, porcelain, fabrics, and objets d’art.”Hamilton said that each of the 25 years had been filled with unique opportunities and couldn’t choose just one that stood out above all. “But I do recall the thrill of a visit to Marie Antoinette’s house. It was so unchanged. Up in the eves you could still see the clothing of her ladies-in-waiting. And once at a dinner in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, where placemats were mirrors as well so that you could see the ornate ceiling, I realized I was seated across from the actress Catherine Deneuve who was a divine conversationalist.”
We are sure that Deneuve would have said the same thing about the lovely woman across from her.
Kristin N. Smith recalled working at Catharine’s side for two decades:
“I learned so much from her insight, persistence, and gracious way of bringing people together. She often spoke of those who inspired her, and in turn, she inspired me. Under her leadership, the American Friends of Versailles became a family of friends, from aristocrats and ambassadors to tireless volunteers, all working toward a common purpose: to help preserve a universal monument that belongs to the world. Thanks to her leadership, the once-ruined Bosquet des Trois Fontaines now stands as the most visited grove at Versailles—a living symbol of what generosity, camaraderie, and perseverance can achieve. Catharine’s legacy endures not only in the restoration of magnificent places, bringing awe and joy to many, but in the lasting bond of goodwill she nurtured between America and France.”
We leave the last word to Catharine, echoing the quality for her.
“What I value most in others is integrity,” she told us.
Fireworks over the Latona fountain at Versailles celebrate Catharine and the American Friends.
