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Larchmont Chronicle Neighborhood newspaper representing Hancock Park, Larchmont Village
Miracle Mile, Park La Brea Fremont Place in the Wilshire center area of Los Angeles. Local News and
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October 3, 2008

ROWENA WILLIS

Jane Gilman

HER NEPHEW, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain, briefly attended Third Street School

Windsor Square resident is world traveler, society matron

Rowena Willis remembers where she was when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. “Paul and I were at the El Mirador in Palm Springs,” recalls the charming 96-year-old.] Later the next year, she and her husband were at The Biltmore in Santa Barbara. There had been reports that Japanese submarines were off the coast. “I wanted to get home, but we were told we couldn’t use headlights because of the blackout so we drove home in the dark.”

Home was Windsor Square where Rowena and Paul Willis settled soon after their marriage. “Albert Dippell (Larchmont Blvd. Realtor sold us the house. I’m the second oldest owner on this street; Sandy McLean’s parents were here before me.”

Born in Oklahoma, the Wright family summered in California and moved here permanently when Rowena and her twin sister Roberta were in the ninth grade. “We went to Mount Vernon Junior High and Los Angeles High. I was sent to The Finch School in New York City and my sister went to Westlake (now Harvard-Westlake) in Holmby Hills.

“We briefly went to Holmby Junior College on the Westlake campus, which they called Holmby School for homely girls,” she laughs.

The Wright twins are far from homely. Roberta eloped with Annapolis graduate John McCain (who later became an admiral and father of the current GOP Presidential candidate). Rowena was wed to Maddux Airlines owner John Maddux in 1933.

Maddux died of a heart attack at 49 when their son Jim was two and one-half. She later married Paul Willis, an investment banker. Her four children, Jim, Wendy, Melanie and Nelson, were raised in the Windsor Square house. Always on staff were a live-in maid and a nanny.

The children went to Third Street School and sometimes their cousin John McCain attended there as well. “You see,” Rowena explained, “Roberta would leave her children with me while she stayed in New London, Conn., where her husband was receiving submarine training.”

Later, Rowena’s daughters attended Marlborough, the boys went to Webb School.

She easily became part of the Hancock Park social circuit “although I am not a joiner. “Lucy Toberman got us into the couples’ club that met at Perino’s, and we attended parties with Betty Christie, a classmate and friend from Los Angeles High School.

“I practically ate all my meals at Perino’s. When my divorce was final (1982), Lucy and I celebrated with a lunch at Perino’s, and Alex (Perino) wouldn’t let us pay.”
She did join Las Floristas charity group “and I hung around so long they made me president.”

After the divorce and when the children had grown, Rowena became a world traveler. By now, her sister’s husband was commander in chief of the naval forces in Europe, and Rowena and Roberta would tour the continent.

When Admiral McCain died in 1981, the sisters began spending three months in the fall and three months in the spring in Europe. Up until a few years ago, this was a yearly schedule.

When McCain was head of naval forces in the Pacific during the Vietnam War, the pair accompanied the Admiral throughout Asia. Now the sprightly nonagenarian visits are mainly to her sister at her home in Washington, D. C.

As for her famous nephew, (Senator McCain) Rowena says “Johnny is very honest. And I can remember when he came back from the prison camp, he was suffering from his injuries. But he wanted to go into public service.”

Rowena can remember so much of the chapters of her life and the people in it, but when I asked how old the children, or the eight grandchildren are, she waved me away with her hand. “I only remember Jim’s birthday,” she admitted.

Larchmont Chronicle
542½ North Larchmont Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Editor & Publisher: Jane Gilman
Associate Publisher: Irwin Gilman

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