Marietta Peabody Tree

Tree died of breast cancer on August 15, 1991, at her home in New York.

In 1987 she appeared in the Danny Huston film Mr. North, released about a month before John Huston died of emphysema on August 28, 1987.

Her affair with English architect Richard Llewelyn-Davies ended with his sudden death in 1981.

She and her husband remained married, though estranged. Ronald Tree died of a stroke on July 14, 1976, in London, while Marietta was in New York.

On July 14, 1965, Tree and Stevenson were walking in London when he suffered a heart attack, and later died at St George's Hospital. That night in her diary, she wrote: "Adlai is dead. We were together."

At the same time, John F. Kennedy named her the United States Representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, where she was able to work directly under Stevenson, who had been named head of the American delegation. She served in this position from 1961 to 1964.

Tree also retained a connection to Huston, who gave her a role in his 1960 movie The Misfits.

Isaiah Berlin characterized her political standing as "a progressive, liberal figure who was mixed up with a lot of naive left-wing sympathizers." As the feminist movement gained momentum in the 1960s, Marietta refused to support its cause, and in 1967 she refused to sign three resolutions pertaining to women's rights.

They continued their affair through his unsuccessful 1956 presidential campaign. Afterward, however, Stevenson began to take other lovers.

Marietta Tree immediately joined the Lexington Democratic Club, and two years later was elected the county chairwoman. She was elected to the Democratic State Committee in 1954.

Tree began an affair with Adlai Stevenson in 1952, the year of his first unsuccessful presidential campaign. Perhaps related to his bisexuality, Tree’s husband was unfazed by the affair and even invited Stevenson to the couple's homes in New York, Barbados and London.

Tree and Peabody divorced their spouses at the end of World War II and married on July 26, 1947. Marietta moved into Tree's home, Ditchley Park, but found herself bored with English country life. Tree and most of his friends were Conservatives, and Democrat Marietta again found herself politically isolated. Their daughter Penelope was born in 1949.

Her ardent liberal Democratic views clashed with those of her Republican husband and apparently created tensions in the marriage. After America entered the Second World War in December 1941, Marietta accepted a post as part of the American delegation assisting the British Ministry of Information.

During college, Marietta was courted by New York City lawyer Desmond FitzGerald. The couple married on September 2, 1939. A year later, Marietta gave birth to a daughter Frances FitzGerald, who became a noted journalist and historian.

Her father insisted that she attend college, and she enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania in 1936. Although she withdrew from the Class of 1940, in later interviews she would exclaim: "I'll never stop being grateful to my father for forcing me to go to college. It changed my life." In 1964 she was presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, and in 1971 with an honorary Bachelor of Arts. She is also an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Marietta Peabody Tree (April 17, 1917 – August 15, 1991) was an American socialite and political reporter, who represented the United States on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, appointed under the administration of John F. Kennedy.