Empty Mansions

appear that Huguette visited Etienne in France, or ever returned to her native country after a trip there with her mother in 1928, although she did consider making the journey. On July 17, 1959, she sent Etienne a telegram saying that she was planning a visit, one she apparently couldn’t quite accomplish.
“A FLOWER IN MY LIFE”

 
    T HE LAST PHOTOGRAPH taken of Huguette was not the uncomfortable one from the time of her marriage in 1928. She continued to have photos taken, but kept them inside the family. In her late thirties, she presented to Anna a portrait of herself standing elegantly in a Japanese-print floor-length gown, with the note, “To my darling Mother, With all my love, Huguette.”
    A devoted amateur photographer,Huguette bought for herself and friends the latest cameras—from the highest-end models of the 1930s to the newfangled instant Land Cameras introduced by Polaroid in 1948. She kept many snapshots of the gardens and rooms at the Clark summer home, Bellosguardo, and of the view across Central Park from No. 907. She studied the light, painstakingly recording on the backs of her prints the light and camera settings: “September 30, 1956,one floodlight, opening 4, counted four seconds.”
    On Easter and Christmas through her forties and fifties, shesat for photographs at home, perhaps self-portraits that she composed. Time after time, she placed a chair in a corner under a Cézanne still life, or sat by the 1940 Steinway piano topped with Easter flowers or a simple white Christmas tree. From year to year, the photos are nearly identical, although the costumes change and she ages. In one she is wearing high-heeled shoes and a smart, slimming dress with polka dots, in another a similar dress with sheer sleeves. Always her hair is in a wave, always a strand of pearls at her neck. Often a Japanese doll is standing on the bureau behind her.
    Only one year did her mother participate in this photo session, late in Anna’s life, perhaps in the early 1960s. In the photo, Anna stands alone in front of the still life. In place of the Japanese doll is a vase of flowers. Next to Anna is one of her magnificent golden French harps, much taller than she, even in her high heels and black Mamie Eisenhower dress with its sheer back. Her back is all we see, for Anna is facing away from the camera.
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    Anna Eugenia LaChapelle Clark died at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital on October 11, 1963, at age eighty-five, after several years of decline. The Catholic funeral Mass was private. In the newspapers, brief obituaries of Mrs. William Andrews Clark listed her only survivors: her sister, Amelia, and daughter, Huguette. Anna’s last will and testament, carefully drawn up in 1960 and sealed with a purple ribbon and red wax, named four executors: Huguette along with Anna’s brother-in-law, attorney, and banker. The will shows a devotion to her family, to her employees, and to charity.Most of the bequests were simple to carry out. Anna left sums of $12,000 to $20,000 each to her sister, her sister-in-law, and her nieces, all on the LaChapelle side. She provided for several friends and relatives by establishing trusts. She directed $50,000 to be set aside for each of her goddaughters, Leontine and Ann. Her former aide Adele Marie (“Missie”) received $100,000, and other employees were remembered with smaller sums.
    Among the charities, Anna left $125,000 to the Girl Scouts to support the memorial to her older daughter, Camp Andrée Clark; $100,000 to the Corcoran Gallery to support her husband’s art collection; and $100,000 each to the United Hospital Fund of New York, the Red Cross, and the Juilliard School of Music. Smaller bequests included $10,000 to the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement to serve the needy and $5,000 for the orphans at the Paul Clark Home in Butte.
    Anna was interred in the mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery, the one with the image of W.A.’s first wife, Kate, on the brass door. She was laid to rest in a crypt next to W.A. and below Andrée.
    At that moment, Huguette herself had no place to be buried. Every spot in the mausoleum was occupied. But Huguette was only fifty-seven years old. She would wait more than forty years to address this issue.
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    Writing to Etienne’s family in France about Anna’s death, Huguette was protective of their feelings, while masking her own grief. She cautioned that there was no need to upset any of their older relatives with such