The Balls Are in the Debutante Courts
Their ball always used to be at the Huntington Hotel in Pasadena. Along the way, members of the Pasadena Guild of Childrens Hospital moved the affair to the Beverly Wilshire as the old Huntington took on a less opulent hue.
On June 15, the prestigious affair will be back at the soon-to-open Ritz Carlton Huntington. Guild President Shirley Struble, ball chair Carol MaGhee and debutante chair Miki Marsh are thrilled.
During the holidays at a tea at the San Marino home of Patty Burschinger, the hostess’s famous chocolate-covered meringue mushrooms were gobbled up around bedecked boards of plenty in the dining room and the guild showed off its newly announced debutantes.
They are Jacqueline Arcaris, Stacy Bollinger, Stephanie Chandler, Jennifer Clark, Jessica Davis, Julie DeCastro, Anne Devereux, Mia Diver, Margaret Evans, Rachel Gregory, Alexis Jordan, Shawna McKinley, Michelle Noble, Susannah Poer, Hilary Poulsen, Anastasia Rehrig, Marie Reniers, Jennifer Ryan, Megan Wier, Erin Wier and Leslie Wright. Pouring tea at the event planned by Ann Longyear were past presidents Isabel Arnett, Kelsey Hall, Nancy Payne and Helen Whitehead.
THE SEASON: While debutantes are home for the holidays, deb events are at their peak. Twenty-three were presented at the Debutante Ball of the National Charity League, San Marino Area Chapter, at the Regent Beverly Wilshire. Their curtsies culminated six years of individual community service.
In a snowy scene massed with holiday greens, ball chairman Caren and husband John Cameron and president Denise Andrews with her husband, Roger, were in the receiving lines for the large crowd. The 23 presented were Dana Austin, Branda Bazler, Molli Berry, Nicole Biles, Sheri Bunn, Alison Cayo, Carrie Cogbill, Julie DeCastro, Karen Edwards, Nicole Fisk, Julie Heckendorn, Dana Howe, Elizabeth Pinder, Christy Renken, Kelli Rettig, Laura Roberts, Stephanie Saxton, Kristen Sheppert, Elizabeth Smith, Kelsey Wegge, Kimberlee Wines, Leslie Wright and Michelle Yacullo.
Then the debs, their escorts, stags and peers separated from the adult crowd and headed for the Wegge Motors Showroom in Pasadena, which had been transformed into a winter wonderland for a post party planned by William and Cheryll Wegge, Jane and Armando DeCastro, Brian and Mary Cogbill, Fran and Daniel Biles, Mrs. Sherer Bazler and William Bazler. Dancing to the Hit Men continued until the wee hours.
MORE DEBS: The Philoptohos Society of St. Sophia Cathedral hosted its mother/daughter debutante tea at the home of Helen Evangelatos in Glendale. Pota Kalivas chairs the Feb. 9 ball at the Beverly Hilton. . . .
Las Madrecitas Auxiliary of the Crippled Children’s Guild of Orthopaedic Hospital hosts the Evergreen Ball Saturday. It presents senior girls of its junior auxiliary, Las Ninas. Presentees, all from the Palos Verdes Peninsula, are Jennifer Campbell, Jennifer Capers, Sandra Docter, Kimberly Knowles, Miriam La Forest, Kerry Lanigan, Cheryl Malinowski, Nicole Maniscalco, Theodora Nelligan, Kellie O’Leary, Karen Patay, Nan-Jeane Snavely and Allison Sumner. PAST PERFECT: Kathleen and Fred Allen and Dee and John Maechling hosted a New Year’s Eve celebration for 40 to toast Ann and Bob Holder of Atlanta. Bob Holder was a key figure in drawing the 1996 Olympics to Atlanta. In a champagne-forever mood were George Tuerk, Susie and Don Crowell, Julie and Art Pizzinat, Gordon and Liz Anderson, John and Dorothy Shea and Joan and Frank Thompson. . . .
Jenny Rutt’s luncheon for 60 at the Pavillion at the Bistro Garden was launched with chat and green ravioli and finished with giggles and ice cream and chocolate. As a surprise, the hostess asked Neiman Marcus to do a mini-fashion show of ball gowns. She provided favors of Christmas-red lipsticks and boxes of lemon drops for everyone. . . .
Gene and Jackie Autry and Rose Narva threw a between-Christmas-and-New-Year’s dinner-dance in Palm Springs at the Autry Resort Hotel with Peter Duchin’s Orchestra wowing the crowd. . . .
Ellen and Berny Byrens held their Beverly Hills annual, the “First Stop New Year’s Eve” party for favorite pals.
KUDOS: Popular Pat Boone will entertain for the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce’s 103rd Inaugural Ball Jan. 18.
FRIENDSHIP: At a Christmas coffee, Bobbie Niblo directed guests upstairs, through the Charleston garden, through the living room and out to the backyard garden for coffee and tidbits. Along the way, she instructed everyone, “Look everywhere, but don’t open the closets.” It was a showoff party of the Niblos’ new home in Pasadena. Their former house burned more than a year ago; she and her husband, James, have just finished rebuilding.
