Out & About

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The New York Sun

“I do it for Jennie,” the president of the S.L.E. Lupus Foundation, Richard DeScherer, said Monday night at the organization’s 35th anniversary gala.


Mr. DeScherer, co-chairman of the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Mayor Bloomberg’s lawyer, has been president of the foundation for 15 years. His wife, Jennie, was diagnosed with lupus 34 years ago, after feeling sick without explanation for 10 years.


The DeScherers’ partnership is loving and productive. Since Mr. DeScherer became president, the organization has grown from a small and local operation into a nationwide enterprise. Its mission is to provide financial and social support to lupus patients and their families. Mrs. DeScherer oversees the foundation’s emergency financial assistance grants to lupus patients and their families.


Both are proud of their role in helping to found an independent research organization, the Lupus Research Institute, which has given $14.5 million to research in the last five years. A majority of the projects funded have gone on to receive additional money from the National Institute of Health.


The DeScherers met at a wedding the summer before Jennie matriculated at Mount Holyoke. That fall, Richard issued many invitations to Jennie, but she had limited weekend passes to leave campus. She had fewer restrictions in her second semester, and the two went out on two dates. On the third, Richard proposed. They were married a year later. When Jennie learned of her disease, a few years into their marriage, the couple responded with wisdom and maturity.


“Lupus doesn’t define me,” Mrs. DeScherer said. “I live a totally – knock on wood – ordinary life.”


Her husband has played a strong part in this reality.


“I wouldn’t be here without him,” she said. “He is absolutely like a rock. He has an amazing ability: When I’m sick, he treats like you have to treat a sick person, and when I’m good, it’s not there. … When you have a chronic disease, it’s difficult, you don’t know what comes next. It must be difficult for a spouse, and I’ve been truly blessed.”


Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disorder that impedes the body’s ability to protect against foreign invaders. It can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, brain, heart, and lungs. Nearly 1.5 million Americans have lupus; 90% of them are women. Many treatments are in an experimental phase, but the last time a new treatment was approved was 40 years ago. The event, attended by 750 guests, raised $2.4 million for the foundation, which is a long way from the first benefit for the organization, which Mrs. DeScherer recalled was a church basement lasagna supper. On Monday at the Marriott Marquis, Tony Bennett – a longtime supporter and friend of the DeScherers – performed, and hizzoner gave a comic interlude.


“You have to know that Dick DeSherer is my lawyer. And by the way, I’m probably being charged for this hour right now,” Mr. Bloomberg said.


***


Vogue editor at large Andre Leon Talley kicked off his holiday season Monday night at the New-York Historical Society.


“It was a perfect place to open the holiday season,” he said, “because it stands for total diversity of all the cultures that have come together in this great city.”


The location was inviting to Mr. Talley’s wide range of friends, including Damon Dash, Patricia Altschul, Catherine Marron, Donald Trump, and Naomi Campbell.


The goal of the evening was to “celebrate the multi-faced jewels of my extended church family,” he said.


Mr. Talley, a member of the Abyssinian Baptist Church, arranged performances by the church’s Liturgical Dancers as well as the Riverside Church Step Dancers and the Harlem Festival Orchestra.


“I connect all the dots in the different worlds,” he said.


The end result: “I know everyone felt it was special. It was a night of a lot of rich soul,” Mr. Talley said.


Guests departed with a reflection of Mr. Talley’s own rich soul: a copy of his recent book, “A.L.T. 365+” (Powerhouse), a scrapbook of his musings and Polaroid photographs.


Now it’s on to other people’s parties, including Cornelia Guest’s birthday party Friday and a lot of holiday luncheons at Michael’s. Also on Mr. Talley’s calendar: Handel’s “Messiah” performed by the Harlem Festival Orchestra this Sunday (to which he is taking Mica Ertegun) and a matinee performance of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on the Sunday before Christmas.


And what will his fabulous holiday outfits look like?


“Since I’ve lost 63 pounds, I’m simple: a navy blue jacket and turtleneck sweater. And maybe a pair of red Manolo boots.”


The New York Sun

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