Spent a while in Newport today, interviewing Nuala Pell, Claiborne's widow, at her house -- the same modest house that Pell himself designed and built, on beautiful waterfront property near Bailey's Beach. Nuala holds the key to much of the Pell Puzzle, as it might be called: how this man who could have spent his life at the cabana instead developed a strong connection to working-class Rhode Islanders that lasted 36 years (six Senate general elections) and made lasting contributions in areas where he himself has no need (Pell grants, for example, for students unable to afford college).
Nuala and I passed an enjoyable and wide-ranging hour, with her sharing memories of Kennedys (Jack and Ted), 1960s campaigning, Nuala's mother, and Claiborne's father, Herbert Claiborne Pell: former ambassador to Hungary and Portugal, one-term Congressman from Manhattan's Silk Stocking district, and an enormous influence on his son (late into life, Claiborne still wore his father's belt).
After my visit with Nuala (pictured here at the Pell Georgetown residence in 1962), I drove by the house on Bellevue Avenue (bottom photo) that Pell's father owned while his son, only child and future senator, was a youngster. Pell passed much of his boyhood there.
On my way back, I stopped and photographed Newport's historic Trinity Church, built in 1726, where the Pells worshiped and where Claiborne's funeral was held on Jan. 5 of this year (middle photo).
More photos, including one of Nuala with Jackie Kennedy in May 1960, on the Facebook Pell Biography page.
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