Socialite. Mildred "Brownie" McLean Known as "The Duchess of Palm Beach," Mrs. McLean led a grand and glamorous life full of parties, travel, philanthropy and adventures that included not only her brush with the legendary diamond but the selling of her Palm Beach home to John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Mrs. McLean was born July 14, 1917 in Lewisburg, W.Va. She lost both her parents, Hudson and Minnie Brown, at a young age. The Browns, descendants of the first Virginia settlers who arrived in 1623, were far from poor. Landed gentry, yes, but not rolling in money. There were horses, cattle, crops and responsibility. As a tomboy riding bareback on the farm, young Brownie never could have predicted that the world's famous diamond would one day be hers for the asking. "My father was the most honorable, correct man, and he taught me to be that way," she later said. She moved to New York City in the 1920s to become a Conover model, and from there to Palm Beach in 1948. Mrs. McLean and her first husband, restaurateur George Schrafft, had one child, Victoria Wilkinson of West Palm Beach. The couple divorced. In the 1960s and 1970s, she and her second husband, John "Jock" McLean, lived at "El Solano," the sprawling home at 720 S. Ocean Blvd. that was designed by Addison Mizner. He died in 1975 and Mrs. McLean sold the house to John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1980.
Socialite. Mildred "Brownie" McLean Known as "The Duchess of Palm Beach," Mrs. McLean led a grand and glamorous life full of parties, travel, philanthropy and adventures that included not only her brush with the legendary diamond but the selling of her Palm Beach home to John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Mrs. McLean was born July 14, 1917 in Lewisburg, W.Va. She lost both her parents, Hudson and Minnie Brown, at a young age. The Browns, descendants of the first Virginia settlers who arrived in 1623, were far from poor. Landed gentry, yes, but not rolling in money. There were horses, cattle, crops and responsibility. As a tomboy riding bareback on the farm, young Brownie never could have predicted that the world's famous diamond would one day be hers for the asking. "My father was the most honorable, correct man, and he taught me to be that way," she later said. She moved to New York City in the 1920s to become a Conover model, and from there to Palm Beach in 1948. Mrs. McLean and her first husband, restaurateur George Schrafft, had one child, Victoria Wilkinson of West Palm Beach. The couple divorced. In the 1960s and 1970s, she and her second husband, John "Jock" McLean, lived at "El Solano," the sprawling home at 720 S. Ocean Blvd. that was designed by Addison Mizner. He died in 1975 and Mrs. McLean sold the house to John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1980.
