Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 1 · column 2 of 4 · from the scan, no model involved
By Mary Beth Martin
Rappahannock New Staff Writer
Marilyn Hoffman, of Woodville, joked that she doesn’t get off the farm that much, but buying a dress that belonged to Princess Diana at Christie’s did get her to Manhattan.
She has had a fascination with Diana since Diana wed Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, in 1981. Marilyn rose at 4 a.m. to watch the royal wedding and has been watching the Princess of Wales ever since.
“Nobody expected her to be so popular after the wedding. She brought a new vitality, youth and style to a fuddy-duddy monarch,” said Marilyn.
She saw Diana in person in London. Every year on her birthday, the Queen Mother takes a stroll down the street by her home, Clarence House, and Marilyn waited for several hours to wish her a happy birthday.
The Queen Mother came out with all the royal family, including Charles and Diana, and they chatted with the well-wishers. Marilyn insists Diana is simply beautiful.
On her son’s suggestion, Diana decided to clean out her closets by auctioning off 79 of her famous and elegant gowns collected during her marriage to Prince Charles. The money from the auction was donated to the Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund, AIDS Crisis Trust, Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, The Harvard AIDS Institute, and The AIDS Care Center of the New York Hospital-Comell Medical Center. Christie’s graciously waived their fees.
It cost $2,000 to guarantee admission into the auction. The price did include an extra ticket for a guest and a leather-bound catalog with Diana modeling the dresses, including sketches by designers and close-up shots of the luxurious details. Each one is numbered like a limited edition print and autographed by the princess herself, and only 250 were available.
For $60 one could purchase a regular catalog, a viewing of the dresses and lottery ticket for admission into the “overflow room” with alergescreen, closed-circuit television of the action in the main room. The bidding
See DRESS, Page A6
91.2%