Joan Braden dead at 77
Louis Epstein
77.
She was the wife of commentator Tom Braden,whose books about their
having eight children were the jumping-off point for the TV series
Eight Is Enough,which never had that much to do with their real
lives(not helped by the actress who played Joan dying in the first
season,which gave the TV series a stepmother situation never in the
real family's life).Seven of the real children and twelve grandchildren
survive.
I recall a story a while back saying Joan had recounted some prominent
Washington figure making a pass at her,but I don't remember who...
theresa
Gov. Rockefeller. She told the story in her autobiography about 10 or 15 years ago...
Tim Dunleavy
>> I recall a story a while back saying Joan had recounted some prominent
>> Washington figure making a pass at her,but I don't remember who...
theresa <emil...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>Gov. Rockefeller. She told the story in her autobiography about 10 or 15 years ago...
Joan Braden also had a longtime affair with Robert McNamara, the
ex-Defense Secretary. It was made public with the 1989 publication of
her autobiography. I've read that the book went into some detail about
the affair-- although not as much as her book proposal, which was
reportedly a very steamy read! (I think Tom issued a few "no comments"
when asked about it.)
Here's an excerpt from today's New York Times obituary which gives
more details:
=========================
Mrs. Braden herself wrote a book, "Just Enough Rope: An Intimate
Memoir" (1989). Writing in The New York Times Book Review, Maureen
Dowd said, "Joan Braden has taken a lot of heat for this book, which
has been criticized as a vapid kiss-and-sell by a Washington society
hostess with the capital's most notorious 'open' marriage."
"The title refers to the amount of freedom the author has received
from her husband," Ms. Dowd wrote. "Washington insiders, however,
sniff that it also alludes to the fact that she has hanged herself
with this 'intimate memoir."'
But "this reviewer does not take such a harsh view," Ms. Dowd
continued, adding that, after all, how can a book be all bad that
features "a shower scene with Nelson Rockefeller, a bedroom scene with
Bobby Kennedy, a toe-tingling lunch with Kirk Douglas and an account
of Frank Sinatra singing 'High Hopes' without his toupee?"
=========================
-Tim
Brad Ferguson
<timd@snip*nospam*.net> wrote:
> Joan Braden also had a longtime affair with Robert McNamara, the
> ex-Defense Secretary. It was made public with the 1989 publication of
> her autobiography. I've read that the book went into some detail about
> the affair-- although not as much as her book proposal, which was
> reportedly a very steamy read! (I think Tom issued a few "no comments"
> when asked about it.)
Must have been a hell of a woman. She'd pumped out eight kids, and she
still had men chasing her.
David T.
Joan Braden, 77; mother who
inspired 'Eight Is Enough'
By Eric Pace
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
September 2, 1999
Joan Braden, a former State Department official who was a hostess and
friend to high-ranking Washington figures and whose eight children inspired
the ABC television series "Eight Is Enough," died Monday in Alexandria, Va.
She was 77.
The cause was a heart attack, The Associated Press reported. Mrs. Braden
collapsed at Sutton Place Gourmet, a food store, and was pronounced dead
at a local hospital.
Mrs. Braden's husband of more than 50 years, Tom Braden, was owner and
publisher from 1954 to 1966 of the former Oceanside Blade-Tribune.
That paper later became the North County Blade-Citizen and merged in
1995 with the Escondido Times Advocate, creating the North County
Times.
After selling the newspaper in 1966, Tom Braden ran unsuccessfully for
lieutenant governor of California. The Bradens then moved to the Washington
area.
For two years beginning in 1976, Mrs. Braden was the State Department's
coordinator of consumer affairs and special assistant to the undersecretary
for
economic affairs. She also had been an aide to Nelson A. Rockefeller and
had worked in political campaigns for John and Robert Kennedy.
The 1975 book "Eight Is Enough," by her husband, Tom Braden, tells of their
family of eight children. In 1977 the book was adapted as the ABC series,
starring Dick Van Patten, which was broadcast by the network until 1981.
In the book, Braden, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate from
1968 to 1986, described his wife's personality: "She's blithe. That's what it
is
about her, and that is why she is so everlastingly cheerful."
By 1976, when Mrs. Braden took up her State Department posts, her friends
included Vice President Rockefeller, Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger
and many other powerful figures who would assemble at the Bradens' large
yellow clapboard house in Chevy Chase, Md., a Washington suburb.
According to those who dined there, the food was simple but good, and the
furniture pleasant and necessarily childproof. There were always flowers and
candles and, if the weather was right, a fireplace ablaze. But it was not
those
things that made Mrs. Braden's dinner parties special, and her invitations a
status symbol.
Rather, it was said in Washington, the main magnet was Mrs. Braden herself,
a slight woman (5 feet 5 inches tall, admittedly too thin at 103 pounds) with
short auburn hair and a wide smile -- blithe, as her husband said, and
everlastingly cheerful.
Mrs. Braden herself wrote a book, "Just Enough Rope: An Intimate Memoir"
(1989). Writing in The New York Times Book Review, Maureen Dowd said,
"Joan Braden has taken a lot of heat for this book, which has been criticized
as a vapid kiss-and-sell by a Washington society hostess with the capital's
most notorious 'open' marriage."
"The title refers to the amount of freedom the author has received from her
husband," Dowd wrote. "Washington insiders, however, sniff that it also
alludes to the fact that she has hanged herself with this 'intimate memoir.'
"
"This reviewer does not take such a harsh view," Dowd continued, adding
that, after all, how can a book be all bad that features "a shower scene with
Nelson Rockefeller, a bedroom scene with Bobby Kennedy, a toe-tingling
lunch with Kirk Douglas and an account of Frank Sinatra singing 'High Hopes'
without his toupee?"
Mrs. Braden was born Joan Ridley in Indianapolis and was reared in the
nearby town of Anderson and in Washington. She received a bachelor's
degree in economics from Northwestern University and worked in the
Pentagon during World War II.
From 1946 to 1951, she was an assistant to Rockefeller, who was then in the
middle of a succession of federal posts he filled before becoming governor of
New York in 1959. She went on to be a special assistant for public relations
to Oveta Culp Hobby, the Eisenhower administration's secretary of health,
education and welfare.
Later she and her husband moved to California, where Tom Braden -- with
the assistance of a $100,000 loan from Rockefeller, whom he had known for
years -- bought the Blade-Tribune.
Tom Braden sold it in 1966 to South Coast Newspapers for $1.6 million.
Besides her husband, Mrs. Braden's survivors include daughters, Mary Poole
of Alexandria, Joan Ridder of Denver, Susan Zarker of Takoma Park, Md.,
and Nancy and Elizabeth Braden, both of Denver; sons, David of Taiwan,
and Nicholas, of Alexandria; and 12 grandchildren. One of the Bradens' sons,
Tom, died in 1994.
Copyright 1999 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
l...@put.com (Louis Epstein) wrote:
>The AP is reporting the death of Joan Braden from a heart attack at age
>77.
>
>She was the wife of commentator Tom Braden,whose books about their
>having eight children were the jumping-off point for the TV series
>Eight Is Enough,which never had that much to do with their real
>lives(not helped by the actress who played Joan dying in the first
>season,which gave the TV series a stepmother situation never in the
>real family's life).Seven of the real children and twelve grandchildren
>survive.
>
>I recall a story a while back saying Joan had recounted some prominent
>Washington figure making a pass at her,but I don't remember who...
If Susan Lucci can win an Emmy, anything is possible! :-)
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