Esther Coopersmith's Thanksgiving: A celebration of life, family

Barbara Ellington, Lifestyle Editor

Her Embassy Row home in Washington, DC, is a treasure trove of historical data on all of the important historical political facts about the United States of America.

In short, it's a biographer's dream for research material, literally before your eyes. And this is where The Honourable Esther Coopersmith, former United States ambassador to the United Nations (UN), brings together family and close friends and associates for her annual Thanksgiving Day dinner. The charming and soft-spoken Coopersmith epitomises the perfect loving mother/doting grandmother and savvy Washington insider/fund-raiser par excellence rolled into one. And no wonder, she has met every US president since Harry Truman occupied the White House.

In her post-retirement years, the former UN representative, under the Carter administration, hosts an annual tea party to help ambassadors' wives learn more about the city while forming new friendships. On November 24, cocktails were taken in the second floor drawing room but some guests could not resist sauntering downstairs to drink in the amazing crimson walled study covered with snapshots of the hostess and the countless kings, presidents, queens, diplomats and many other dignitaries she has met during her travels around the globe.

"We bought this house 14 years ago from Polly Guggenheim Logan," she tells Outlook, adding that the extensive and perfectly landscaped backyard is sometimes used for entertainment. Guests could not resist a quick tour of the inviting grounds.

A close friend of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, she thinks the former first lady would make an excellent vice-president because she could attract the much-needed women's vote for President Barack Obama. While acknowledging Vice-President Joe Biden as her friend, she describes Secretary Clinton as " ... outstanding, well known, a team player and an extraordinary woman", Coopersmith declares about the woman who regards her as a mentor. Her fund-raising expertise goes back decades to when she hosted the first for the then 29-year-old Biden, and she's still actively involved today, giving advice when needed. And she has plenty of that, having remained closely linked with DC political life post-retirement.

But this occasion is about family and fellowship and the hostess takes charge, introducing everyone around the table with the reminder, "the more you eat, the surer you are to be invited back next year". Dinner is taken in the formal dining room whose peach coloured walls are covered in historical data. Each framed article bears something significant to the nation's life. Between bites of corn pudding, sweet potato pie, roasted beef and turkey, cranberry mould, stuffing, green bean casserole and sweet potato pie, the eyes cannot help darting from frame to frame.

In his welcome, her son, Dr Jonathan Coopersmith, a Texas-based professor, said Thanksgiving is the only day in America when everyone eats the same thing. "This is the only truly US holiday we have, the only non-commercialised holiday and a day when most Americans return home to family, so welcome everyone, let's eat!" Conversation is varied and takes some surprising turns as another son, Jeffrey Coopersmith, an attorney based in Seattle, Washington, is very knowledgeable about Jamaican issues. He describes new Prime Minister Andrew Holness' story as "remarkable and inspiring" and says it's a pity it is not as well known as stories related to the drug and violence issues that plague the country. (See his take on and plans for the exoneration in the United States of National Hero Marcus Garvey in next week's Outlook).

Dinner guests included Elena Poptodorova, Bulgarian ambassador and her husband; Pavlos Anastasiades, Cyprus ambassador, and wife Maria; Eklil Hakimi, Afghan ambassador; Audrey Marks, Jamaican ambassador to the US, and her daughter, Madison Dunstan; Ina Ginsberg Jana, a science and technology adviser, US Department of State; Julia Claire Coopersmith, Ronald Coopersmith, Dr Jonathan Coopersmith, Lisa Coopersmith, Caroline Coopersmith, Dr Lisa Erlanger, her daughter Emma Cooper Smith and husband Jeff Coopersmith and Ina Ginsberg.

Ambassador Coopersmith, who is originally from a small town in Wisconsin, was born to Russian and Romanian parents. She moved to Washington, DC, after college and there met her husband, Jack, a real-estate mogul through a friend. She is widowed with four children and eight grandchildren.

barbara.ellington@gleanerjm.com

Photos by Barbara Ellington.