Society mainstay ran array of enterprises
Ann Getty, a leading San Francisco philanthropist devoted to the arts and sciences, died early Monday of a heart attack suffered during a family dinner Sunday night at the Getty home on Outer Broadway in San Francisco.
According to a family representative, Getty was rushed to the hospital, where she died several hours later. She was 79.
On the arm of her husband, the delightfully eccentric music composer and oil heir Gordon Getty, the tall and striking Ann Getty was a fixture at every opera ball and symphony gala for more than 40 years. But she was also an author and publisher with her own imprint, an interior designer with her own client list, a preschool headmistress, and a warm and humble personality who never forgot where she came from.
Ann Getty could tell a story on
any number of topics, ranging from her upbringing on a walnut and peach farm in the Central Valley, to her time working the cosmetics counter at the fashionable Joseph Magnin department store, to her adventures in global travel aboard the family Boeing 727, called the Jetty. A favorite destination was Africa on a paleoanthropology dig.
“She had a deep laugh that was as contagious and oneofakind as she was,” said Charlotte Shultz, chief of protocol for the city and county of San Francisco and the state of California. “Her support for the arts and the supporting social events are legendary, and for all this she never wanted to take center stage.”
Word of Getty’s sudden death traveled through San Francisco society on a hazy Monday morning like a shock wave.
“Ann was an amazing person who really put her divot back,” said U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, DCalif., employing a golf term for fair play. “She did wonderful things and left behind a powerful legacy. I’ll hold very fond memories of Ann forever. She’ll be missed.”
Ann Getty was particularly close to Gov. Gavin Newsom, going back to his friendship and business partnership with her son Billy Getty in Plumpjack, a wine store, then a restaurant, then a lodge at Squaw Valley.
“She has been there for me and my family in our most important moments — from joyful occasions to times of pain and sadness,” said Newsom in a statement while touring the Butte County wildfires with President Trump. “San Francisco is a greater and more vibrant city because of her creativity and spirit of generosity. Ann’s legacy will endure in the spaces she designed, the causes she championed and the people she cared for and inspired.”
Getty was never idle. While raising four boys, she lent her energy, resources and charm to any number of philanthropic activities, as well as a few commercial ventures on the side.
“I wear Levi’s every day because I go down in the trenches,” she told former San Francisco Chronicle society columnist Catherine Bigelow. “I grew up believing that one needs to work all day, and I still do.”
Ann Gilbert was born in Wheatland (Yuba County) on March 11, 1941. She attributed her drive to a Puritan work ethic that came from her parents, who farmed peaches and walnuts at the north end of the Central Valley.
While working in the orchards, she dreamed of growing up to become a scientist or explorer, and after graduating from East Nicolaus High School in 1958, she got her chance. She left the farm for UC Berkeley to study anthropology and biology, and took a parttime job at the cosmetics counter at Joseph Magnin near Union Square.
Under the auspices of owner Cyril Magnin, the store was considered a launchpad into the more glamorous corners of San Francisco life. Ann Gilbert met Barbara Newsom, sister of Bill Newsom, an old friend of Gordon Getty’s from San Francisco’s St. Ignatius College Prep, class of 1955, and father of Gavin.
When the two women walked into La Rocca’s Corner, a North Beach bar, in 1964, Gordon Getty turned to Newsom and said of Gilbert, “Bill, she’s too tall for you,” according to society event planner Stanlee Gatti, who heard the story from Getty himself. He got off his barstool and introduced himself by saying, “Why don’t we play a game, shot for shot?” She agreed without flinching, and they lined up the shot glasses. “They haven’t been apart since,” Gatti said.
The year they met, they eloped to Las Vegas, where they were married on Christmas Day. Gordon Getty liked to underplay his fabulous wealth by dressing down and driving an AMC Pacer, the ultimate utilitarian vehicle, in the 1970s. In 1973, they moved into a Pacific Heights mansion designed by Willis Polk, and over time, Ann redid its interior. Gordon parked the Pacer out front.
“Her taste was very historical and rich with color,” said Gatti, “but she wasn’t a showoff and she wasn’t a braggart.”
Eventually they bought the mansion next door and she set to work on its interior, too. The compound included a small music conservatory and lap pool. On one floor was a preschool she founded to pursue her interest in early childhood development.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Gettys were at the center of it all, as covered in The Chronicle by columnist Herb Caen and society columnist Pat Steger. There was never any shortage of copy on “Ravishing Red,” as Caen called her, for her auburn hair. In a typical Caen item after she purchased a publishing house in 1985, he wrote, “That’s all Ann
Getty needs: more money. Since she bought ailing Grove Press last summer, its fortunes have prospered to a net profit of $414,000 in Jan., compared with $186,000 a yr. ago. No, I don’t know where she banks. Banks bank with her.”
During these years, the Jetty was always fueled up and ready to bring an entourage to the Super Bowl, where the 49ers always seemed to be playing, or to the Olympics in Greece and China. Shultz traveled with her on it to New York and to Paris on official Sister City business and says that if you were on the plane, you’d never know who owned it. Ann Getty sat wherever there was an open seat.
When the Gettys were home, they always seemed to be hosting something to raise money for some cause, with whitecoated valet parkers seemingly standing by every night of the week. Caen used to call the Getty mansion “San Francisco’s Embassy.”
Survivors include husband Gordon; sons Peter, John and William Getty; and grandchildren Ivy, Nicholas, Alexander, Veronica, Ava and Dexter Getty. She was predeceased by her son Andrew.