More Than You Know
Nov 6th, 2009 | By blair | Category: Past B ArticlesSTORY: BILL SIBLEY
PHOTOGRAPHY: VARIOUS ARCHIVAL
Jeanette Longoria. How does she do it? From where does such moxie and unwavering resolve emanate? How does anyone maintain that ineffable measure of charisma and fascination beyond “a certain age”? It’s a question Bill Sibley asked one of San Antonio’s last red-hot authentics, sitting beside a life-size, nude bronze ‘goddess’guarding her pool in the lush garden of her splendidly exotic Monte Vista maisonette.
Her son, Douglas Jaffe, says it best: “Mother is the Peter Sellers character, Chance Gardiner, from the film Being There. No matter where she goes, no matter who she meets – people are thoroughly intrigued by her.” That couldn’t be more true. Longoria’s walls are laden with photos of her and the famous/infamous alike. The Shah of Iran, Hillary Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, Mikhail Baryshnikov. . . well, you get the idea. Nothing like living the good life, but for Longoria, there was always more in the cards for the young girl who did everything to the beat of her own drum. “My mother always said, ‘Jeanette is the different drummer’,” she explains. “When you’re surrounded by the arts as a child, you just grow into it. My mother and grandmother were both artists and my aunt was an accomplished sculptor. During World War II, I used to sing at various military events around town while my mother accompanied me on the piano. At one point, I was even offered a studio contract at MGM but my parents wouldn’t let me go. If I had gone to Hollywood, I’d probably have seven husbands instead of seven children, so I have no regrets.” Yes, you read correctly. The blonde bombshell is the mother of seven, grandmother of 13 and great-grandmother of six from her marriages to San Antonio builder Morris Jaffe and later, Mexican powerhouse, Octaviano ‘Chito’ Longoria.
Born Jeanette Hermann to an old German-American family in a house still standing on the grounds of Hemisfair Park, Longoria, among a myriad of honors, titles and acclamations, is the Honorary Consul General to the Kingdom of Morocco for the Government of Mexico. She’s also the unsung hero of the Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital, instigating the initial fundraising drive over 50 years ago to construct the massive downtown building that faces Milam Park. One can’t help but wonder why a plaque doesn’t exist to commemorate the, then young mother of five children and her boundless efforts to aid and assist area children.
Does she sound a bit eccentric yet? What else would you call a woman who dresses up on her 80th birthday in full mermaid regalia (complete with blonde wig, bejeweled crown and webbed feet) to receive hundreds of globe-trotting guests as she reclined on a divan? Clearly Longoria knows a thing or two about capriciousness. Describing an eccentric as one who is more than ‘different,’ she believes eccentricity is a look, a style, a viewpoint, someone unmistakable for anyone else. It’s best in her own words: “When I married Chito [Longoria] and moved to Mexico City in 1968, I sort of shook things up down there. My memories of the sixties, seventies and eighties are of a very special time and place. Chito asked me to design the first house there, which he wanted to be a big showcase. At one time, Arabesque was probably one of the biggest, grandest homes in Mexico City. He was 23 years older than me and women were much more deferential. There was the usual idle gossip that my skirts were too short, but I didn’t pay it any mind. Within a year or two, all the younger women were wearing dresses shorter than mine.”
Not to mention, Longoria ran with a very hip crowd. By her own account, Latin women are some of the chicest creatures on Earth. Eleanor Lambert, originator of Vanity Fair’s “Best-Dress List”, once called her close friend Gloria Guinness ‘the most elegant woman in the world’. “She had the most gorgeous blue eyes,” Longoria gushes of her bosom buddy. “Her home in Acapulco was always filled with tiny blue flowers that matched her eyes exactly. I’ve been fortunate to know some really glamorous women. They would throw a party and always make a grand entrance, pausing ever so dramatically at the top of the staircase just before descending. Those girls really knew how to play it up back then.”
One could most certainly argue that Longoria still has “it”. The cover of her delightfully unconventional 2004 memori mento book, Aphrodite and Me, features her in a full body-stocking, shoulder-length blonde wig and a seashell crown emerging from the surf of Cyprus, closely resembling a half-century younger Christina Aguilera caught filming an MTV music video. But it’s not all fun and games. The legendary socialite never fails her most important duty as one of the world’s most privileged: giving back. “Amalia Cardneas, wife of the former Mexican President Lazaro Cardenas, was a great friend of mine and worked diligently for the children of Mexico,” Longoria muses. “Every year we’d load trucks filled with fruits and vegetables, drive way up into the mountains to distribute them.”
Strong diplomatic ties and a natural flair for hosting fabulous shindigs made Longoria’s posh abodes heavy favorites among jet-setters and thus, she was always prepared to entertain the masses, announced or otherwise. “Both of my husbands were definitely high-powered individuals,” she confides. “I can’t tell you how many times [Morris Jaffe] would ring up and say something like, ‘I’ve got John Connelly or Lyndon Johnson and 30 campaign workers coming over for dinner.’ I had to be highly organized; I knew just where to get all the last-minute boiled shrimp and roast beef. For years I traveled constantly from New York to the South Texas farm, the Nuevo Laredo ranch, Mexico City and back to San Antonio. So I kept pre-prepared menus at each location.”
Surprisingly, Longoria is just as content when she’s surrounded by friends and family, citing a pleasant roadside picnic as her idea of a lovely afternoon. As one who came of age during the Depression, she recalls being the most happy when everyone had so little. “My daughter Jana is a brilliant fashion designer and once told an interviewer that she learned to develop her own instincts after I gave her a clothes pin and told her to drape [fabric with] it,” she informs. “You don’t need a lot of ‘stuff’ to encourage the imagination. Kids really miss out on any sense of accomplishment if we just give them everything. The act of discovery is crucial.” A common thread (pun intended) Longoria definitely shares with her daughter is their love of fashion. Though they aren’t shackled to any particular look or designer, the two agree that Neiman Marcus is the mecca for everything synonymous with Texans and great style. “Stanley Marcus did more for the women of Texas than anyone. He was a complete visionary,” she raves. “Every year, Neiman’s would do their legendary ‘Fortnight’ and Princess Grace or the Duchess of Alba would be walking around the store, you never knew who was going to show up.” Not that Longoria doesn’t enjoy the ease of today’s no-muss, no-fuss mantra. Although the days of donning blinding jewels for a trip to the grocer are long gone, she swears by Kenneth Jay Lane’s copies that rival the real thing. Not including her Moroccan bracelets of course; those are dear to her heart as the North African country is among her favorite destinations.
“My first love has to be Morocco – it’s such a fantastic, magical place and the people are so generous and kind,” Longoria swoons. “Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, was visiting Morocco and asked me to join her for a reception. When I arrived, all the royal women were seated on raised dais and the visiting royalty were gathered around the room with other government representatives. Jeanne leaned over to me and asked in a very nice way, ‘I don’t quite understand who you are and what exactly you’re doing here.’ I laughed and said, ‘I don’t quite understand myself.’ We became fast friends after that.” Longoria has a knack for making friends with everyone, everywhere she goes; albeit London for a quick jaunt to a pal’s country estate followed by lunch at the House of Lords or an overnight flight to South Africa and the Seychelles Islands. She claims to be simply wild about Africa. After hunting in Gabon with the President’s son, who wouldn’t be? Her own son, Douglas, recently escorted his mother to Equatorial Guinea and Gambia where a woman randomly inquired, “Please tell me, what is the secret to keeping a man?” Although a shocking occurrence for most, it’s just another day in the life for Longoria who often finds herself giving marriage advice at the dentist’s office.
Though she never tries to ‘meet’ anyone or pursue relationships, people are instinctively drawn to her like moths to a flame. “People will come to you if you remain open, curious and understanding,” she assumes. “If I have any philosophy at all, it’s this: try being an optimist and being aware of other’s needs, not just your own.” That explains why Longoria, self-proclaimed Earth Mother, identifies so closely with Aphrodite, the goddess of all love and namesake of her book. As for advice, Longoria will gladly divulge her best tips to anyone who beckons. “I’m always telling people, ‘If you want love in the coming year, wear red panties on New Years Eve’ or ‘Wrap money in a cabbage leaf and put it under your pillow on December 31st and you’ll have money all year long!’ I once took two heads of cabbage with me to Morocco when I spent a New Years Eve with the King. I swear, everyone in the Palace was clutching a cabbage leaf at the stroke of midnight that year.” With Longoria’s spell-binding charm, no one is at all suprised; she seems to know a thing or two about luck. Her son Douglas Jaffe Jr., shared the founder’s grand vision for Horseshoe Bay and in the last decades the Jaffe family has made extensive contributions and additions to rejuvenate and elevate the resort’s quality. The newest chapter in the history book of Horseshoe Bay begins as Douglas Jaffe III was recently appointed the new Chief Executive
Officer. The world class destination coined the “Pebble Beach of Central Texas” hosted Longoria’s audacious, globe-hopping 80th birthday bash securing the resort as a true family affair. With a precedence set for San Antonio’s most recognizable socialite, there’s no end in sight for glamorous generations to come.
