Renowned guests celebrate Leonore Annenberg

"A philanthropist of global acclaim," Prince Charles declared in a video love letter.

"She was a benefactor of the cultural class as well as the underclass," said Tom Brokaw. "It was never about Lee, it was always about others."

Yesterday, it was finally about Lee - Leonore Annenberg, the civic leader and philanthropist who died in March at 91. Leaders in the realms of education, science, medicine, arts and culture, philanthropy, business, and politics gathered to remember her in a 90-minute tribute at the Academy of Music.

Mrs. Annenberg knew that the key to a great party was the guest list, said New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. "This surely is one of the great celebrations of our time," he said, gesturing out into the house, where 1,600 guests heard music, reminiscences, and testimonials to Annenberg's good works.

Anyone seeking physical evidence of those good works could simply look around. More generously and lovingly than anyone else, Leonore Annenberg and her husband, Walter - billionaire publishing magnate (he had owned The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News) and ambassador to the Court of St. James's under Richard Nixon - saw to it that the Grand Old Lady of Locust Street was maintained and restored.

In their lifetimes they gave more than $100 million to the Academy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, which yesterday, led by Charles Dutoit, played excerpts of Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, and Copland while images of Annenberg flashed on screens above the stage.

After the ceremony, guests spilled out into the foyers of the Academy and could see for the first time the last big Annenberg-funded project at the Academy: the ballroom restored to its original 1857 appearance.

The Annenbergs loved to hear the orchestra in the old hall that was its home from its founding in 1900 until 2001, and the ensemble is developing plans to return there for a small number of concerts next season.

"Lee loved music and in particular the Philadelphia Orchestra," said retired federal judge Arlin M. Adams, a longtime family friend.

Former President George H.W. and Barbara Bush spoke in a prerecorded but quite contemporaneous-sounding video, recalling Annenberg's grace and hospitality.

"She literally changed our relationship with Japan," Barbara Bush said of Annenberg's tenure as U.S. chief of protocol.

Many spoke of Annenberg's near-psychic ability to make people feel at ease, and, of course, of her beauty and glamour.

Sandra Day O'Connor, who caused a bit of a stir walking up Broad Street with Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham after the ceremony, said she first met the always meticulously turned out Annenberg in 1981.

"I was a cowgirl from Arizona and you can't imagine how impressed I was with Lee Annenberg."

In addition to the boldface names on stage - H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, who organized the event, along with Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Bloomberg, University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann, and, representing Prince Charles, Lord Peter Carrington - the audience was a gathering of civic powerhouses. The Pew Foundation's Rebecca Rimel was there, as were heads of all the region's major museums and music groups, artists, and board members of cultural organizations that had benefited from Annenberg largesse.

But speakers made clear that the Annenbergs' gifts had known no geographical bounds. Prince Charles read a long list of causes to which they gave in the United Kingdom. Bloomberg said the Annenberg name was so prominent in New York that Leonore Annenberg was considered a New Yorker.

In fact, in the planning, there was some question about whether the event would be held in New York, Philadelphia, or Los Angeles, where the Annenbergs also had strong ties.

Gov. Rendell said there had been deep local concern after the death of Walter Annenberg seven years ago that the Annenberg Foundation's philanthropy would trickle off.

"We needn't have worried," he said. Under Leonore Annenberg's direction, the foundation pumped about half a billion dollars into the region in the years since.

And with that, Rendell beat a hasty retreat so he could get to the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, tipping his rhetorical hat once more to the woman of the day.

"She'd be aghast that I'm going to show up an hour late to a meeting with 20 world leaders and the president of the United States," he said.