Marietta Peabody Tree

Marietta Peabody Tree (April 17, 1917 – August 15, 1991) was an American socialite and political reporter, who represented the United States on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, appointed under the administration of John F. Kennedy.

Peabody was the only daughter of Malcolm Endicott Peabody, the rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Mary Elizabeth Parkman, a dedicated charity volunteer, who encouraged her daughter to become involved with the community. Her paternal grandfather Rev. Endicott Peabody was founder and first headmaster of Groton School, where her four brothers Endicott, Samuel, George, and Malcolm were educated. Her maternal grandfather, Henry Parkman, was a Boston businessman and politician.

Tree attended St. Timothy's School, where she excelled in athletics. She undertook a grand tour of Europe and finishing school in Florence upon graduation to avoid college. When asked to predict her own future, she wrote down: "Parties, people, and politics."

Her father insisted that she attend college, and she enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania in 1936. Although she withdrew from the Class of 1940, in later interviews she would exclaim: "I'll never stop being grateful to my father for forcing me to go to college. It changed my life." In 1964 she was presented with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, and in 1971 with an honorary Bachelor of Arts. She was also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

During college, Marietta was courted by New York City lawyer Desmond FitzGerald. The couple married on September 2, 1939. A year later, Marietta gave birth to a daughter Frances FitzGerald, who became a noted journalist and historian.

Her ardent liberal Democratic views clashed with those of her Republican husband and apparently created tensions in the marriage. After America entered the Second World War in December 1941, Marietta accepted a post as part of the American delegation assisting the British Ministry of Information.

During the war years, Marietta became romantically involved with the film director John Huston. When her husband returned at the end of the war Huston departed for California at her request to wait for her to obtain a divorce. At that point, however, Marietta and her husband traveled to Barbados to stay with Nancy and Ronald Tree, a grandson of retail magnate Marshall Field and MP for Harborough, Leicestershire.

Marietta began an affair with Tree during her visit to Barbados in 1945. Tree and Peabody divorced their spouses at the end of World War II and married on July 26, 1947. Marietta moved into Tree's home, Ditchley Park, but found herself bored with English country life. Tree and most of his friends were Conservatives, and Democrat Marietta again found herself politically isolated. Their daughter Penelope was born in 1949.