Bunky Cushing’s Valentine’s Tea

The invitation would have been in mailboxes around town about three weeks ago. This one has become a little battered with age, but it evokes happy memories.

By Megan McKinney

It has been six years since the last of these annual invitations landed in your mailbox. In the early years it was Ladies please wear red. Red? Let’s face it, how many Ladies really look great in red or even like the color. So Bunky branched out, adding fuchsia and pink. Not much better—meaning late January and a bit of February were spent searching for something to be worn once, and assigned to the back of the closet for a few years before another February 14 appearance.

Oh, how we would love to drag out those red suits again next Sunday… but since we are doing everything else virtually this year, let’s have a virtual party at the Ritz now.

Mary Ellen Connellan with Bunky

Tory Benecke, Lisa Gutierrez and Heather Wright

Carrie Lannon and Sherrill Bodine

Noreen Ungaretti and Marty Higgins Averill Leviton and Roni Siegel

The party you are attending virtually was held in the Greenhouse at the Ritz-Carlton Chicago, as Bunky’s St. Valentine’s teas usually were. Eighty-five ladies “dressed in red” enjoyed a classic English high tea from a menu that read, “finely cut sandwiches, fresh-baked scones, strawberry jam, clotted cream and delicate pastries.” Flutes of Gloria Ferrer Champagne, with a plump red raspberry nestled the bottom of each, were served at four o’clock. Elizabeth Doyle was at the piano, accompanied by Jim Cox on bass. It was always great fun—especially with nothing else going on in mid-February and the holidays a distant memory.