Annette de la Renta

Annette de la Renta (born 24 December 1939) is an American philanthropist and socialite, the widow of the Dominican fashion designer Oscar de la Renta. She was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1973.

Birth and childhood Born in Nice, France, and her maternal grandmother, Mary Ignatius Murphy, was a Roman Catholic of Irish descent from San Francisco.

De la Renta attended the Foxcroft School in Middleburg, Virginia.

In 1947, after her mother moved to the United States and remarried, Annette Mannheimer was adopted by her stepfather, Charles W. Engelhard Jr., an industrial magnate, and became Annette Engelhard; she became an American citizen in 1966. She was raised in the Roman Catholic faith of her mother. He was a vice president of Engelhard Industries, the minerals conglomerate; who later owned American Heritage magazine. Reed and Annette eventually divorced. The couple had three children, two daughters, Eliza Reed and Beatrice Morrison, and a son, Charles Reed. becoming step-mother of his adopted son, Moises de la Renta. In October 2006, de la Renta and JPMorgan Chase became permanent guardians. On 20 October 2014, her husband, Oscar de la Renta, died of cancer, at age 82.

Philanthropy De la Renta serves on the boards of the Metropolitan Museum, the New York Public Library, the Morgan Library, the Animal Medical Center, and the Engelhard Foundation. She also served on the board of directors of Rockefeller University for 25 years, and now serves as a trustee emeritus.