Editing Sister Parish

{{Short description|American interior decorator and socialite}}
[[Image:WHyellowNARA.jpg|thumb|The [[Yellow Oval Room]] at the White House during the administration of President [[John F. Kennedy]], as decorated by Sister Parish.]]'''Sister Parish''' (born '''Dorothy May Kinnicutt'''; July 15, 1910 – September 8, 1994) was an American [[interior design|interior decorator]] and [[socialite]]. She was the first practitioner brought in to decorate the [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] [[White House]], a position soon entrusted to French interior decorator [[Stéphane Boudin]]. Despite Boudin's growing influence, Parish's influence can still be seen at the White House, particularly in the [[Yellow Oval Room]].

== Early life ==
Sister Parish was born Dorothy May Kinnicutt on July 15, 1910, in [[Morristown, New Jersey]].  Her parents were [[G. Hermann Kinnicutt]] and May Appleton Tuckerman.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/10/obituaries/sister-parish-grande-dame-of-american-interior-decorating-is-dead-at-84.html|title=Sister Parish, Grande Dame of American Interior Decorating, Is Dead at 84|last=Pace|first=Eric|date=1994-09-10|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref>  Parish was born at home in a four poster bed.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/parish-article-012000|title=Design Legends: Sister Parish | last=Aronson|first=Steven M. L.|magazine=Architectural Digest|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref>  Her paternal grandfather was Francis Kinnicutt, [[Edith Wharton]]'s doctor and close friend.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/08/20/reviews/000820.20norwict.html|title=Interiors|work=The New York Times|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref>  In addition to their New Jersey house, the family had homes in Manhattan, Maine, and Paris.<ref name=":0" />  She was given the nickname Sister by her three-year-old brother Frankie.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IM08x5y9CnIC&q=sister+parish+obituary&pg=PT14|title=Sister Parish: The Life of the Legendary American Interior Designer|last1=Bartlett|first1=Apple Parish|last2=Crater|first2=Susan Bartlett|last3=Williams|first3=Bunny|date=2012-10-28|publisher=Abrams|isbn=9780865653023|language=en}}</ref>

As a child, Parish attended [[The Peck School]] in New Jersey, in the fall and spring.  During the winter, she attended [[Chapin School]] in New York.<ref name=":3" />  Later, she boarded at [[Foxcroft School]] in Virginia.<ref name=":3" />

Parish was a debutante in 1927.<ref name=":2" /> Once she had completed high school, her parents expected her to marry, and on [[Valentine's Day]] 1930, Kinnicutt married banker Henry Parish II at [[St. George's Episcopal Church (Manhattan)|St. George's Episcopal Church]] in Manhattan.<ref name=":3" />

After the wedding, the couple lived on [[East End Avenue]] in Manhattan (in an apartment done by a decorator), followed by a farmhouse on Long Lane in [[Far Hills, New Jersey|Far Hills, NJ]] which Parish decorated herself.<ref name=":0" />  In decorating the Long Lane house, Parish found her own sense of style.  She painted wood furniture white and used cotton fabrics such as ticking stripe.  She experimented with brightly painted floors. Parish's new home was lighter and more casual than other high society homes of the 1930s.<ref name=":3" />

Parish spent most of her summers in her house in [[Islesboro, Maine]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/17/garden/at-home-with-apple-parish-bartlett-behind-the-chintz-curtain-the-legacy.html |title=AT HOME WITH/Apple Parish Bartlett; Behind the Chintz Curtain, the Legacy |work=The New York Times|date=17 August 2000|access-date= 2017-04-27}}</ref>

== Early career ==
The Great Depression tightened the family's finances and in 1933 the 23 year old opened a decorating business.<ref name=":0" />  Her [[Far Hills, New Jersey]], office measured 14 feet by 14 feet and cost $35 a month.  Parish outfitted the room with wicker furniture and hung a sign that said "Mrs. Henry Parish II, Interiors."<ref name=":1" />

At the time she opened her business, Parish was completely untrained.  She had never read a book on decorating or served any kind of apprenticeship.<ref name=":1" />  Parish's family helped influence her style.  May's first cousin was acclaimed interior decorator [[Dorothy Draper]].<ref name=":3" />  May's father collected antiques.<ref name=":0" />

Parish's earliest work was decorating the houses of friends.<ref name=":0" />

== Jacqueline Kennedy and the White House ==
Parish met [[Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis|Jacqueline Kennedy]] socially in the late 1950s and helped her decorate the [[Georgetown (Washington, D.C.)|Georgetown]] house the family lived in while [[John F. Kennedy]] was a Senator.<ref name=":0" />  After Kennedy was elected President in 1960, Jackie hired Parish to help with the redecorating of the [[White House]].<ref name=":0" />  Parish's name led to some confusion, with one newspaper proclaiming: <nowiki>''</nowiki>Kennedys Pick Nun to Decorate White House.<nowiki>''</nowiki><ref name=":2" />

Prior to moving into the White House, the Kennedys leased a country house in Virginia called Glen Ora.<ref name=":4">{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2013/11/21/northern-virginias-slice-of-camelot-the-kennedys-in-fauquier-county-1961-63/|title=Northern Virginia's slice of Camelot: The Kennedys in Fauquier County, 1961-63|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref>  Parish spent $10,000 redecorating the home; the cost enraged Jack Kennedy.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=quSGedVr4ZEC&q=sister+parish+&pg=PA47-IA19|title=America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis|last=Bradford|first=Sarah|date=2001-10-01|publisher=Penguin|isbn=9781101564011|language=en}}</ref>  The Kennedys had to restore the house to its previous look before vacating.<ref name=":4" />

In a letter to Sister Parish, Jackie Kennedy explained her plans for the White House:{{blockquote|author=Jacqueline Kennedy|text=I want our private quarters to be heaven for us naturally—but use as much of (the Eisenhowers') stuff as possible & buy as little new—as I want to spend lots of my budget below in the public rooms—which people see & will do you & I proud!<ref name=":6">{{Cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1996/01/07/dearest-sister-love-jackie/|title=Dearest Sister ... Love, Jackie|newspaper=tribunedigital-chicagotribune|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref>}}Parish used the Georgetown living room she had previously designed as a blueprint for the West Sitting Hall, painting everything off-white, installing bookcases for Jackie's collection of art books and paintings.<ref name=":7">{{Cite news|url=http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/what-the-white-house-looked-like-when-jackie-kennedy-lived-there|title=Here's What the White House Looked Like When Jackie Kennedy Lived There {{!}} Architectural Digest|last=Mehle|first=Aileen|newspaper=Architectural Digest|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref>

Parish and Jackie spent the entire budget of $50,000 allocated for the redecoration of the White House on the private quarters in the first two weeks.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":8">{{Cite web|url=https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-White-House-Restoration.aspx|title=The White House Restoration - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum|website=www.jfklibrary.org|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref> [[Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library|Winterthur Museum]] Director Charles Montgomery suggested the formation of a committee to acquire antique furnishings for the White House.<ref name=":8" /> The goal was to help furnish the White House with authentic pieces from a century and a half earlier.<ref name=":0" />  Noted collector Henry du Pont was made chair of the committee<ref name=":8" /> and Sister Parish was among the committee members.<ref name=":0" /> Parish and DuPont concentrated on including American [[Federalist architecture|Federalist]] furniture in the [[Sheraton style|Sheraton]] and [[Hepplewhite]] styles.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.whitehousehistory.org/glimpses-of-the-old-family-dining-room|title=Glimpses of the Old Family Dining Room|newspaper=WHHA|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref>

Much of Parish's work updating the White House was simple, like rehanging curtains inside rather than outside moldings.<ref name=":6" /> But some of the redesign was more complicated. As part of her redesign, Parish added a kitchen, pantry and dining room to the family unit on the second floor. Prior to this remodel, the First family had to go downstairs to the kitchen that serviced the State Dining Room whenever they wanted something to eat.<ref name=":6" />

Through Parish, [[Steuben Glass Works]] offered a donation of crystal that Jackie refused in favor of [[Morgantown Glassware Guild]] in West Virginia.<ref name=":6" />

Toward the end of the project, a rift occurred. According to Parish<nowiki>'s granddaughter, ''it was primarily a problem over money and Jackie'</nowiki>s belief that not everything had to be paid for. Sister wrote that it was because someone had told Jackie that she had kicked [[Caroline Kennedy|Caroline]]. I wouldn't have put it past her, but that was not the root of the falling-out. Later, Sister would shrug off the questions with one of her glib remarks, like 'Jackie got along much better with men than with women.' <nowiki>''</nowiki><ref name=":2" />

Although Parish initially decorated the family's private quarters, [[Stéphane Boudin|Stephane Boudin]] of Paris was hired to decorate the State Rooms.<ref name=":6" />  Boudin decorated the [[Red Room (White House)|Red Room]], the [[Treaty Room]], the [[Lincoln Sitting Room]] and the [[Blue Room (White House)|Blue Room]] of the Kennedy White House.<ref name=":7" />  After Parish and Kennedy fell out, Boudin returned to the White House to add his French style to the private rooms.<ref name=":7" />  However, the [[Yellow Oval Room]], the Kennedys' semi-formal drawing room, remained primarily Parish's design.<ref name=":5" />

== Work with Albert Hadley ==
In 1962, a young designer named Albert Hadley introduced himself to Parish. His first assignment with Parish was the breakfast room of the Kennedy White House. “I only did the curtains,” he said in 1999.<ref name=":9">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/us/albert-hadley-interior-decorator-to-high-society-dies-at-91.html|title=Albert Hadley, Interior Decorator to High Society, Dies at 91|last=Weber|first=Bruce|date=2012-03-30|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref> Hadley became a full partner two years later. Parish and [Hadley] would continue to work together until Parish's death in 1994.<ref name=":9" />  The firm was a training ground for dozens of designers now acclaimed in their own right including [[Bunny Williams]] and [[Thom Filicia]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/parish-hadley-tree-of-life-book|title=Inside a Legendary Interior Design Firm {{!}} Architectural Digest|last=Stamp|first=Elizabeth|newspaper=Architectural Digest|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref>  According to Harold Simmons, "Parish-Hadley influenced a whole generation of decorators and many of the top New York decorators went through the firm at some point in their careers."<ref name=":3" />

In 1967, ''[[House & Garden (magazine)|House & Garden]]'' magazine ran spreads of Parish's summer house, bursting with wicker and [[needlepoint]] and other crafts.<ref name=":2" />  According to the ''New York Times'', this departure from traditional decorating was on par with fashion's introduction to Dior's New Look.<ref name=":0" />

Parish and Hadley worked with quilters from [[Selma, Alabama]], in the late 1960s to develop patchwork quilted yard goods.<ref name=":10">{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-10-29-hm-56008-story.html|title=DECORATING : Sister Parish's Legacy: Styling the Familiar|last=MAYER|first=BARBARA|date=1994-10-29|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref>  The Freedom Quilting Bee was born in the [[Civil Rights Movement]] as a way for poor black craftswomen to earn money for their families.  Many of the group's members participated in Civil Rights demonstrations.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1628|title=Freedom Quilting Bee {{!}} Encyclopedia of Alabama|website=Encyclopedia of Alabama|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref> Parish-Hadley collaborated with the Freedom Quilting Bee from 1967 to 1969, bringing old-fashioned quilts to high style publications. The partnership ended naturally with the Freedom Quilting Bee moving on to other contracts and Parish-Hadley moving on to other looks.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4aHFBAAAQBAJ&q=sister+parish+&pg=PA67|title=The Freedom Quilting Bee: Folk Art and the Civil Rights Movement|last=Callahan|first=Nancy|date=2005-04-17|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=9780817352479|language=en}}</ref>

Parish and Hadley stocked handwoven Irish rugs and baskets and other crafts in a small invitation-only shop on New York's Upper East Side. As the items were photographed in magazines, they spread into the mainstream.<ref name=":10" />

In 1988 [[Sarah, Duchess of York]], hired Parish to decorate a new country house near [[Windsor Castle]]. The cost of Parish's work was estimated at $1 million. Queen Elizabeth II later rescinded the assignment in favor of an English designer, but just getting in the door was considered a triumph.<ref name=":10" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/30/garden/new-home-for-prince-it-s-british-after-all.html|title=NEW HOME FOR PRINCE: IT'S BRITISH AFTER ALL|last=Vogel|first=Carol|date=1988-06-30|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref>

== Style ==
Parish is widely considered to have originated what became known as American country style.<ref name=":0" />  She avoided matching, filling homes with contrasting prints<ref name=":11">{{Cite web|url=https://partners.nytimes.com/library/home/081700sister-parish.html|title=Behind the Chintz Curtain, the Legacy|website=partners.nytimes.com|access-date=2016-11-21}}</ref> and sometimes intentionally placed items off center.<ref name=":1" />

A 1999 ''Architectural Digest'' article described Parish's style: "Her interiors as a rule were refreshingly unstudied, unself-conscious, and unstrained...A Sister Parish room overflowed, to be sure—but buoyantly. It was romantic and whimsical but not sentimental; and, always, it was light—the rug might be Aubusson, the mirror Chippendale and the chandelier Waterford, but she undercut these "brand names" with all manner of charming distractions. Her living rooms ''lived'': They were friendly to the world..."<ref name=":1" />

In 1994, ''House Beautiful'' editor Lou Gropp said, "There is no question that Sister Parish was one of the biggest influences on decorating in the United States. She dominated the decorating of the 1970s and '80s, and many of her ideas that were fresh and new in the 1970s are now in the mainstream of American decorating."<ref name=":10" />

Signature elements of the Parish look included painted floors, Anglo-Franco furniture, painted furniture, [[chintz]], [[needlepoint]] pillows, mattress ticking, hooked rugs, rag rugs, starched [[organdy]], botanical prints, painted lampshades, white wicker, quilts, and baskets.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

According to a 2000 New York Times article, "If you have a quilt, you probably owe it to Mrs. Parish."<ref name=":11" />

Her work influenced [[Ralph Lauren]] and [[Martha Stewart]].<ref name=":11" />

== Notable clients ==
* Jacqueline and John Kennedy<ref name=":0" />
* [[Sarah, Duchess of York]]<ref name=":0" />
* [[Brooke Astor]]<ref name=":0" />
* Jane and [[Charles Engelhard]]<ref name=":2" />
* [[Babe Paley|Babe]] and [[Bill Paley]]<ref name=":2" />
* Betsey and [[Jock Whitney]]<ref name=":2" />
* Ann and [[Gordon Getty]]<ref name=":2" />

== Later life ==
Parish stayed on as a partner in the firm into her 80s.<ref name=":0" />  She died September 8, 1994, in Maine.<ref name=":3" />

==See also==
* {{cite book|title=The Great Lady Decorators: The Women Who Defined Interior Design, 1870-1955|author=Lewis, Adam |date=2010|publisher= Rizzoli|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8478-3336-8}}

==References==

{{Reflist}}
* Abbott James A., and Elaine M. Rice. ''Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration.'' Van Nostrand Reinhold: 1998. {{ISBN|0-442-02532-7}}.
* Monkman, Betty C. ''The White House: The Historic Furnishing & First Families.'' Abbeville Press: 2000. {{ISBN|0-7892-0624-2}}.
* ''The White House: An Historic Guide.'' White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 2001. {{ISBN|0-912308-79-6}}.
* West, J.B. with Mary Lynn Kotz. ''Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies.'' Coward, McCann & Geoghegan: 1973. SBN 698-10546-X.
* "Sister Parish." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 21 May. 2008
* Bartlett, Apple., "Sister:  the life of legendary American interior decorator Mrs. Henry Parish II." 2000. St. martin's press. New York. {{ISBN|0-312-24240-9}} pages 114–133, 134-158

==External links==
''Architectural Digest'', (2000) [https://web.archive.org/web/20110805184327/http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architects/legends/archive/parish_article_012000] ''New York Times'' (2000) [https://www.nytimes.com/library/home/081700sister-parish.1.html Slide show of the life and works of Sister Parish], retrieved December 17, 2006,
''New York Times'' (2000)[https://www.nytimes.com/books/00/08/20/reviews/000820.20norwict.html]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parish, Sister}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1994 deaths]]
[[Category:American interior designers]]
[[Category:American socialites]]
[[Category:Artists from New York City]]
[[Category:People from Morristown, New Jersey]]
[[Category:American women interior designers]]
[[Category:People from Islesboro, Maine]]
[[Category:20th-century American women]]
[[Category:Foxcroft School alumni]]