Marguerite Littman

Marguerite Lamkin Brown Harrity Littman (May 4, 1930 – October 16, 2020) was an American-British socialite and HIV/AIDS activist. As a Southern American accent coach she is known to have coached actors including Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Littman is remembered for her role in HIV/AIDS advocacy, including fundraising for charities.

Early life Marguerite Lamkin was born on May 4, 1930, to Eugenia and Ebenezer Lamkin in Monroe, Louisiana. Her father was a lawyer and her mother a homemaker. She studied philosophy at Newcomb College and later at Finch College in New York City. It has been claimed that Author Truman Capote famously modeled his famous southern character, Holly Golightly, in his 1958 Breakfast at Tiffany's novella, partially after Littman.

Littman started the AIDS Crisis Trust in 1986, as a charity to collect funds for AIDS research and treatment. As a start, she had written to over 300 of her socialite friends asking for a contribution of £100 to be founding members. The trust organized gala events and auctions to raise funds for the cause. The trust went on to become one of Britain's most prominent AIDS-awareness charity groups. The trust's auctions would offer pieces from her socialite friends including Elizabeth Taylor and David Hockney. During this period, Littman was introduced to Diana, Princess of Wales, who was already associated with AIDS-related charities across the world. In 1997, Diana donated her entire wardrobe to Littman to be auctioned. The auction, facilitated by Christie's, raised more than $3 million for the trust and other charities. She then married British barrister and Queen's Counsel Mark Littman, a union which lasted from 1965 until his death in 2015.

Littman died on October 16, 2020, at her home in London. Her obituary in the New York Times stated: