DORIS DUKE'S LEGACY: Duke contributed greatly to the restoration of Colonial Newport before her death in 1993, and her foundation continues to donate $55 milliona year toward various causes.
12.19.99
In 1901, Abby Aldrich married John D. Rockefeller Jr. on the lawn of a Warwick mansion overlooking Narragansett Bay. That wedding shouted to the world that the family of Nelson W. Aldrich had arrived.
Aldrich was Abby's father, and it had been a long climb from poverty to that gilded wedding. From 1881 to 1911, Aldrich was the boss of the U.S. Senate, where he pulled more behind-the-scenes strings than a puppeteer for special interests like sugar and tobacco. It paid off.
Rhode Island industries boomed during World War I . About 28,000 Rhode Islanders were in uniform, including Louis A. Watson of Providence, an infantryman whose detailed diary of the horrors of trench warfare in Europe is preserved at the Rhode Island Historical Society Museum.
H. P. Lovecraft was a writer of horror stories who loved his native Providence; some call him the father of science fiction. His literary output was small but bonechilling; it's particularly creepy for Rhode Islanders, familiar with the places and names in his spooky tales.
Humorist S. J. Perelman , on the other hand, couldn't wait to get out of Providence, where he grew up in a Bernon Street triple-decker. The few times he referred to it in his work were not flattering.
The son of Italian immigrants, John O. Pastore grew up in a four-room Federal Hill flat. When he was 9, his father, who was a tailor, died. His mother toiled as a seamstress to support her five children.
Democrat Pastore became the nation's first Italian-American governor, in 1945, and first Italian-American U.S. senator, in 1950. In 1964, Pastore gave the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, using the occasion to skewer GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater .
Between 1950 and 1960, the American population grew by 29 million, the largest 10-year increase in its history. In Rhode Island, the number of babies born yearly during the baby boom rose from about 10,000 to nearly 17,000, in 1946, and more than 18,000, in 1947. The birth rate stayed high until 1965.
Claiborne Pell took a lot of ribbing during his 36 years in the U.S. Senate. From his interest in the paranormal to the moldy old yarn about the overshoes from Thom McAn (" Do thank Mr. McAn for me, won't you?'') reporters could not resist portraying him as the absent-minded Senator from the Moon.
History will see him differently. Pell himself is proudest of his work on the treaty banning nuclear testing on the ocean floor, which has had an incalculable effect on the environmental health of the planet.
But for millions of lower income college students, his Pell grants meant the route to a better life.
The Vietnam War did not spark as much protest in largely blue-collar Rhode Island as it did in Berkeley and New York City. Young men like William T. Cavanaugh of Central Falls, the first Rhode Islander to die in Vietnam, served willingly; families immigrated during this century felt that their duty was to support the government no matter what.
However, students at the state's colleges and universities grew increasingly disenchanted with the war's progress as presented on the evening news. And by the early 1970s the question of whether it was a just war was under hot debate at many dinner tables.
They called Doris Duke a "poor little rich girl'' and tried to compare her to Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton , but they were wrong. Hutton died broke and pathetic, riddled by addictions.
Duke got pretty loopy toward the end and had her own drug-and-alcohol problems, but she more than doubled the tobacco fortune she inherited from her doting father. Before her death in 1993, she had restored half of Colonial Newport; her will created a foundation that pours about $55 million a year into medical research, environmental preservation, and the performing arts.
Born to one of the most illustrious surnames in American politics, Patrick J. Kennedy won office on his first try in 1988 when he became a state representative from Providence's working-class Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
Kennedy was a 21-year-old Providence College student when his door-to-door campaign defeated incument Rep. John M. Skeffington . Kennedy relied on family help -- his father, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and his late cousin, Brown University graduate John F. Kennedy Jr. , campaigned for him.
He spent a record $87,600 on his campaign for the job that in those days paid $300 a year. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1994 and has become a key figure in Democratic efforts to reclaim the House.
In 1980, Rhode Island voters sent Claudine Schneider to Congress, the first woman ever to represent the state.
Hugely popular at home, she faced an uphill battle in Washington as a liberal Republican in a Democratic-controlled House. An ardent environmentalist, she had little experience in the kind of give-and-take that makes the capital's wheels move smoothly.
While she was a reliable and principled vote on issues that mattered to her (such as biodiversity and women's rights), Schneider got stuck on bad committees; fumed as her legislative initiatives went nowhere; and resented what she saw as overly critical press coverage.
She lost an ill-advised challenge against Sen. Claiborne Pell in 1990. Today she lives in Colorado.
The peak of Arlene Violet's fame was probably the Sunday night in April of 1985, when she appeared on 60 Minutes. A clearly charmed Morley Safer teased her about her nickname, Attila th e Nun, and asked what she planned to do to clean up Rhode Island.
Not as much as she thought, as it turned out. During her tenure as Attorney General, the former Sister of Mercy took aim at a number of alleged evil-doers -- many of whom escaped unscathed due to prosecutorial missteps.
Violet went on to a successful career as a radio talk show host, and is mulling a run for the U.S. Senate.
What do people remember about Governor Bruce Sundlun ?
The raccoon shootings. The night of Dec. 13, 1997, when he flipped out over plastic forks. His lively romantic life. His war exploits, and the time John Chafee saved him from drowning when they were both Boy Scouts.
Future generations will remember the way he moved decisively to confront the credit-union disaster ignored by his predecessor, Governor Ed DiPrete. And they will admire him for stiff-arming the critics and turning T. F. Green Airport into a showplace.
Listening to Prozac , by Brown University psychiatrist Dr. Peter D. Kramer , was a runaway best-seller in 1993, making him the nation's most famous Prozac doc. The green and beige capsule became popular because it is an anti-depressant generally thought to be safe and nonaddictive. Kramer was careful not to claim Prozac was a panacea to depression, but he helped popularize the drug by writing about how it transformed his patients, making them calm and cheerful.
A federal prosecutor who battled political corruption and the New England mob as U.S. Attorney, Republican Lincoln C. Almond was elected governor in 1994 and reelected in 1998.
Almond's opponent in both elections was Democrat Myrth York , a former Providence state senator and the only woman to win the gubernatorial nomination of a major party. Almond's tenure has been marked by a strong economy, lower taxes, opposition to casino gambling, and the opening of the Providence Place Mall.
The great-granddaughter of a slave, O. Rogeriee Thompson, of Providence, in 1997 became the first black woman Superior Court judge, appointed by Governor Almond. Thompson, an alumna of Brown University and Boston University Law School, was elevated after serving as a District Court judge. The first woman Supreme Court justice was Florence Kerins Murray of Newport, elected by the General Assembly in 1979.
In 1901, Abby Aldrich married John D. Rockefeller Jr. on the lawn of a Warwick mansion overlooking Narragansett Bay. That wedding shouted to the world that the family of Nelson W. Aldrich had arrived.
Aldrich was Abby's father, and it had been a long climb from poverty to that gilded wedding. From 1881 to 1911, Aldrich was the boss of the U.S. Senate, where he pulled more behind-the-scenes strings than a puppeteer for special interests like sugar and tobacco. It paid off.
Rhode Island industries boomed during World War I . About 28,000 Rhode Islanders were in uniform, including Louis A. Watson of Providence, an infantryman whose detailed diary of the horrors of trench warfare in Europe is preserved at the Rhode Island Historical Society Museum.
H. P. Lovecraft was a writer of horror stories who loved his native Providence; some call him the father of science fiction. His literary output was small but bonechilling; it's particularly creepy for Rhode Islanders, familiar with the places and names in his spooky tales.
Humorist S. J. Perelman , on the other hand, couldn't wait to get out of Providence, where he grew up in a Bernon Street triple-decker. The few times he referred to it in his work were not flattering.
The son of Italian immigrants, John O. Pastore grew up in a four-room Federal Hill flat. When he was 9, his father, who was a tailor, died. His mother toiled as a seamstress to support her five children.
Democrat Pastore became the nation's first Italian-American governor, in 1945, and first Italian-American U.S. senator, in 1950. In 1964, Pastore gave the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention, using the occasion to skewer GOP presidential nominee Barry Goldwater .
Between 1950 and 1960, the American population grew by 29 million, the largest 10-year increase in its history. In Rhode Island, the number of babies born yearly during the baby boom rose from about 10,000 to nearly 17,000, in 1946, and more than 18,000, in 1947. The birth rate stayed high until 1965.
Claiborne Pell took a lot of ribbing during his 36 years in the U.S. Senate. From his interest in the paranormal to the moldy old yarn about the overshoes from Thom McAn (" Do thank Mr. McAn for me, won't you?'') reporters could not resist portraying him as the absent-minded Senator from the Moon.
History will see him differently. Pell himself is proudest of his work on the treaty banning nuclear testing on the ocean floor, which has had an incalculable effect on the environmental health of the planet.
But for millions of lower income college students, his Pell grants meant the route to a better life.
The Vietnam War did not spark as much protest in largely blue-collar Rhode Island as it did in Berkeley and New York City. Young men like William T. Cavanaugh of Central Falls, the first Rhode Islander to die in Vietnam, served willingly; families immigrated during this century felt that their duty was to support the government no matter what.
However, students at the state's colleges and universities grew increasingly disenchanted with the war's progress as presented on the evening news. And by the early 1970s the question of whether it was a just war was under hot debate at many dinner tables.
They called Doris Duke a "poor little rich girl'' and tried to compare her to Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton , but they were wrong. Hutton died broke and pathetic, riddled by addictions.
Duke got pretty loopy toward the end and had her own drug-and-alcohol problems, but she more than doubled the tobacco fortune she inherited from her doting father. Before her death in 1993, she had restored half of Colonial Newport; her will created a foundation that pours about $55 million a year into medical research, environmental preservation, and the performing arts.
Born to one of the most illustrious surnames in American politics, Patrick J. Kennedy won office on his first try in 1988 when he became a state representative from Providence's working-class Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
Kennedy was a 21-year-old Providence College student when his door-to-door campaign defeated incument Rep. John M. Skeffington . Kennedy relied on family help -- his father, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and his late cousin, Brown University graduate John F. Kennedy Jr. , campaigned for him.
He spent a record $87,600 on his campaign for the job that in those days paid $300 a year. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1994 and has become a key figure in Democratic efforts to reclaim the House.
In 1980, Rhode Island voters sent Claudine Schneider to Congress, the first woman ever to represent the state.
Hugely popular at home, she faced an uphill battle in Washington as a liberal Republican in a Democratic-controlled House. An ardent environmentalist, she had little experience in the kind of give-and-take that makes the capital's wheels move smoothly.
While she was a reliable and principled vote on issues that mattered to her (such as biodiversity and women's rights), Schneider got stuck on bad committees; fumed as her legislative initiatives went nowhere; and resented what she saw as overly critical press coverage.
She lost an ill-advised challenge against Sen. Claiborne Pell in 1990. Today she lives in Colorado.
The peak of Arlene Violet's fame was probably the Sunday night in April of 1985, when she appeared on 60 Minutes. A clearly charmed Morley Safer teased her about her nickname, Attila th e Nun, and asked what she planned to do to clean up Rhode Island.
Not as much as she thought, as it turned out. During her tenure as Attorney General, the former Sister of Mercy took aim at a number of alleged evil-doers -- many of whom escaped unscathed due to prosecutorial missteps.
Violet went on to a successful career as a radio talk show host, and is mulling a run for the U.S. Senate.
What do people remember about Governor Bruce Sundlun ?
The raccoon shootings. The night of Dec. 13, 1997, when he flipped out over plastic forks. His lively romantic life. His war exploits, and the time John Chafee saved him from drowning when they were both Boy Scouts.
Future generations will remember the way he moved decisively to confront the credit-union disaster ignored by his predecessor, Governor Ed DiPrete. And they will admire him for stiff-arming the critics and turning T. F. Green Airport into a showplace.
Listening to Prozac , by Brown University psychiatrist Dr. Peter D. Kramer , was a runaway best-seller in 1993, making him the nation's most famous Prozac doc. The green and beige capsule became popular because it is an anti-depressant generally thought to be safe and nonaddictive. Kramer was careful not to claim Prozac was a panacea to depression, but he helped popularize the drug by writing about how it transformed his patients, making them calm and cheerful.
A federal prosecutor who battled political corruption and the New England mob as U.S. Attorney, Republican Lincoln C. Almond was elected governor in 1994 and reelected in 1998.
Almond's opponent in both elections was Democrat Myrth York , a former Providence state senator and the only woman to win the gubernatorial nomination of a major party. Almond's tenure has been marked by a strong economy, lower taxes, opposition to casino gambling, and the opening of the Providence Place Mall.
The great-granddaughter of a slave, O. Rogeriee Thompson, of Providence, in 1997 became the first black woman Superior Court judge, appointed by Governor Almond. Thompson, an alumna of Brown University and Boston University Law School, was elevated after serving as a District Court judge. The first woman Supreme Court justice was Florence Kerins Murray of Newport, elected by the General Assembly in 1979.
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