Deeda Blair knows the power of a well-orchestrated supper. Born in Chicago, she enjoyed stints in Washington, D.C., New York City, and abroad as wife to William McCormick Blair Jr., an ambassador to both Denmark and the Philippines, throwing her first big fundraisers in the 1960s. (These days, her main cause is the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, having launched the Deeda Blair Research Initiative for Disorders of the Brain in 2021.)
Indeed, on meeting her at home in Manhattan, it’s hard to know what’s the most impressive: Beyond Blair’s staunch dedication to medical research is her ferocious elegance, documented in Pinterest-famous images by Horst P. Horst and Andy Warhol. Deeda Blair: Food, Flowers & Fantasy (Rizzoli), a new book edited by Deborah Needleman, also dazzles, pairing Blair’s recipes…
