Houston Icons Saluted at Symphony Gala — Donna Vallone and Shelby Hodge Tell (Almost) All

From insights on dinners with President Nixon and President George Herbert Walker Bush to the socialites who have chased me across ballrooms, Donna Vallone of Tony’s fame and I answered myriad questions from our interviewer Leisa Holland Bowman at the Houston Symphony League‘s annual “Conversation With an Icon” luncheon.

The inquiring-minds-want-to-know audience had their share of questions also as the midday throng settled in at The Ballroom at Tanglewood.

Donna Vallone and I have been good friends for decades and Leisa Holland Bowman is a friend to both of us so the conversation flowed with laughs, a few tears and a few shocking revelations. How about the the couple that chose to dine nude in Tony’s wine cellar? Or the time that President Richard Nixon was so taken with his meal at Tony’s that he asked for the cannelloni recipe.

And there were the stories of businessmen and their girlfriends exiting through the kitchen at Tony’s as the wife walked in the front door. Yes, Donna could write a book.

We both shared that our beloved husbands are the men behind our success and without whose support our stories would be quite different. A teary Donna spoke about her late husband, the renowned restaurateur Tony Vallone. While I gave verbal kisses to my husband, architect and professor Shafik Rifaat, who was seated at a key table.

And yes, I could write a book too, but as the saying goes, I could never do lunch in this town again. But I did share tales of the women eager to be noticed and one in particular who was so determined to get her photo in the paper that on one black-tie evening she literally chased me and my photographer across the foyer of the Hilton Americas-Houston.

Some of my favorite interviews: Oscar de la Renta, Nelson Mandela and Karl Lagerfeld.

Applause, applause for luncheon chairs Patti Murphy and Elizabeth Stein who helmed the cheerful gathering of 120 (a sellout as seating was limited) that benefited the Houston Symphony.

PC Seen: Symphony League president Cheryl Byington, Vicki West, Betty Tutor, Bobbie Nau, Laura McWilliams, Joanna Hartland Marks, Marla Hurley, Alex Blair, Mady Kades, Heidi Rockecharlie, CC Connor, Cora Sue Mach, Raquel Lewis, Clare Fontenot, Sidney Faust, Jacquie Baly, Beth Wolff, Ann Ayre, Jerre Williams, Kristen Cannon, and Janeen Fertitta.