This was 2009 or 2010. Ingrid took this picture of us in the foyer. You can see the front door behind us looking out into the front yard.
Phyllis Diller’s First Dustbiter Reunion Lunch
It was July 17, 2005, Phyllis Diller’s 88th birthday. The butler pushed open the doors of the formal dining room. “This room was always off-limits when I worked here,” Carole Beams whispered as the butler stood aside and motioned for us to enter. The table was beautifully set with antique silver, elegant china and crystal wine goblets. Linen napkins and place cards marked every place. The tall candles in the center were lit even although it was the middle of the day. Phyllis had invited a select group of former secretaries, whom she dubbed her “Dustbiters” for the first of what would become many annual reunions. (She later explained her name for us on the Rosie O’Donnell Show, “they worked for me as long as they could stand it, then they bit the dust!”). This was the first time in nearly 30 years I’d been back. The house had not changed, but it was very… Read More »
Phyllis Diller’s last luncheon
For about 8 years, Phyllis Diller had hosted an annual “Dustbiter luncheon” at her home. It began with a party that Sandy Beach (really), the secretary who replaced me, gave to celebrate Phyllis’s birthday back in 2003 or 04 — I can’t remember exactly. Phyllis had so much fun with the 6 of us that she decided to have a reunion at her house every year after that. It started out as a birthday party, but Phyllis didn’t like the idea of everyone bringing her presents, so she changed it to the third Sunday in August and that’s when the handful of us gathered at her mansion every year until this last reunion in 2011. In this picture, Phyllis is 94 years old and dang if she doesn’t look better than I do! (Let’s hear it for plastic surgery.) Part of it, I’m sure, was Phyllis’s constant drive to be… Read More »
