New York Times story featuring the children of the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown (who was in an NIC fraternity, piece of trivia). Tracey Brown is 2nd from left in photo:
August 31, 2003
GOOD COMPANY
A Sag Harbor Sister-Fest
By LINDA LEE
SAG HARBOR, N.Y.
YOU could say that Morris Reid didn't so much give a party for Tracey L. Brown last weekend as take one — from a client, a liquor conglomerate, eager to back a series of get-togethers. Such is the nature of Hamptons entertaining that the purpose is not just a fun night out but sometimes to promote an agenda — in this case, putting certain brands into the hands of the right crowd. And this was the right crowd. Ms. Brown, a lawyer and author, is the daughter of Ronald H. Brown, commerce secretary under Bill Clinton, who died in 1996 in a plane crash in Croatia.
The party was held in the five-bedroom waterfront house belonging to Alma Brown, Ms. Brown's mother. It was built in 1998 in a neighborhood that is a home to many prominent African-Americans, including the lawyer Johnny Cochran; the lifestyle guru B. Smith
; Earl Graves Jr., the founder of Black Enterprise magazine
; and Susan Taylor, the editor of Essence magazine.
"In the Hamptons, the whites have their place, and this is ours — we're not all P. Diddy," said Lisa Bonner, an entertainment lawyer based in Los Angeles and once Ms. Brown's classmate at Boston College.
At 6:30, Ms. Brown, 35, was in the dining area managing traffic, talking to the servers and doing one seating chart after another. And fretting about her carefully cultivated tan.
"I went yesterday and had a massage," she said. "And they came to me and said, `We're trying something new — would you like a microdermabrasion?' And it felt great, but when I was done they had exfoliated my beautiful tan. So I sat out today
and worked on my tan." And she fended off Ms. Bonner's advice about her closets. "You had a skort in there," Ms. Bonner said.
"It is not," Ms. Brown insisted. "It's a short jumpsuit. And my stylish grandmother taught me that everything comes back."
The party was supposed to start at 7:30, but it had been a splendid day for golf, sailing and swimming, and people wandered in late. Dini von Mueffling, a journalist, arrived with a tub of salad and Matt Gohd, an adviser to Dr. Howard Dean of Vermont. "I'm the really rude guest who brought her own dinner," she said. "I'm on the raw food diet."
The servers passed around trays of chicken satay with peanut sauce from Barefoot Contessa in East Hampton to guests on the patio, facing Sag Harbor Bay. Mr. Reid, the host, who is a Washington political strategist, and his wife, Jaci, arrived from their house in East Hampton. This was his fifth Hamptons party this summer. He removed a cigar from his mouth and said, "Most have been at my house, but two have been done at someone else's — they invite their friends, and I fill in with other guests."
He underlined the intentional mix. "It's a diverse crowd," he said, "a real cross section." If a cross section can range from merely successful to wildly successful.
Ms. von Mueffling was first at the buffet table; she loaded a plate with steak and mushroom sauce, garlic mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus. "It's for Matt," she said quickly, referring to her date.
Ms. Brown's brother, Michael A. Brown, who is a Washington lobbyist, arrived from the golf course in time to eat. "I heard the cowbell," he said. Ed Johnson, an investment banker, skidded in at 9:20. "These two weeks are like cocktail party central," he said. "You say yes, and then you've got too many commitments."
With the guests seated at a long table on the terrace, just above the bay, fireworks erupted in celebration of the Sag Harbor Fire Department's 200th birthday — and immediately stopped. "That's all I could afford," Michael Brown joked.
He stood up. "This is a celebration dinner," he said. "First of all, my sister has a job. So give her a big hand for that." Ms. Brown, formerly a district attorney in Los Angeles, will join Mr. Cochran's law firm after Labor Day. "And," he said, "she's almost finished with her second book," a novel about the Hotel Theresa in Harlem.
The fireworks began again, and he sat down, saying, "I see my credit card worked — it's all part of the whole Tracey-fest environment."
Before the peaches poached in Cognac and served with vanilla ice cream, Mr. Brown stood up one more time to talk about his sister. And then for a moment he turned serious.
"One thing we need to remember," he said. "Forty years ago was the March on Washington," when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. People around the table applauded lightly, and continued to celebrate the good life.
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