Loudon Wainwright, Jr.

Loudon Snowden Wainwright Jr. (December 16, 1924 – December 12, 1988) was an American writer. He was the father of folk singer Loudon Wainwright III and singer Sloan Wainwright, and grandfather to Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, and Lucy Wainwright Roche.

Early life Wainwright was born in Manhattan, New York. His father, a graduate of the Pawling School and Princeton University, was a senior partner in the insurance firm of Wainwright & Page, Inc.

His paternal grandparents were Stuyvesant Wainwright, a direct descendant of Director-General of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant, and Caroline Smith (née Snowden) Wainwright. His great-grandfather was politician and diplomat Archibald Loudon Snowden, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Serbia, Romania, Greece, and Spain. His uncle, the artist Carroll Livingston Wainwright, was married to Edith Gould, the daughter of George Jay Gould, and was the father of U.S. Representative Stuyvesant Wainwright II, Loudon's first cousin. In 1964 he began writing "The View From Here", a regular column in the magazine which appeared until the magazine ceased weekly publication in 1972.

When Life resumed publication as a monthly in 1978, he joined its staff as an editor, and continued to contribute to its pages after retiring from that position in 1985.

In 1986, Wainwright was also the author of The Great American Magazine: An Inside History of Life, an informal history of the magazine. At the time of their wedding, Martha was a Private first class with the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve. Martha Taylor Wainwright

Descendants Through his son Loudon, he was the grandfather of singer-songwriters Rufus Wainwright (born 1973), who married Jörn Weisbrodt and had a child, Viva Wainwright Cohen, with friend Lorca Cohen (herself the daughter of singer Leonard Cohen); Martha Wainwright (born 1976), who married Brad Albetta; and Lucy Wainwright Roche (b. 1981).

Through his daughter Sloan, he was the grandfather of two, Sam and Gabe McTavey.