From Sharon's Great Elm to National Review

SHARON — Following his death on Feb. 27 at age 82,  newspapers and television shows talked at length about the  legacy of William F. Buckley Jr. [For an obituary, turn to Page A8.]

He was most often referred to as an outspoken conservative who oozed wealth, class and privilege, from his Ivy League-style clothing to his upper- class drawl.

But here in Sharon, family members who still live at the Buckley family’s Great Elm remember a softer, more human side of the author, television host and newspaper columnist.

“By any standard he was a remarkable human being who had a tremendous depth of talent and imaginative power,� his older brother, James Buckley, said in an interview with The Journal last week.

“What doesn’t come through in his public image was the extraordinary interest and generosity Bill had toward others. He had a way of ferreting out those he could help; his family and friends would testify to that. He was a sweet, kind and funny human being.�

“Bill was a wonderful human being,� agreed his older sister, Priscilla Buckley. “He was infinitely considerate.�

The Buckleys of Great Elm

Though William F. Buckley Jr. and his nine siblings grew up all over the world (notably in Paris, London and New York City), from 1923, they considered Great Elm their home.

William F. Buckley Sr. bought the property, which is at the intersection of routes 41 and 343, in 1923. He named it Great Elm, after the majestic elm tree on the property, which was then the biggest in Connecticut (the tree  was one of many in the area that succumbed to Dutch Elm disease in the 1940s).

The elm is gone, as are many of the remaining members of William F. Buckley Jr.’s generation. Last summer, his sister, Jane Buckley Smith, died, at the age of 82, leaving only his brother (former U.S. Sen. James Buckley) and his sister (and former National Review editor) Priscilla on the estate — although some of their children, nieces and nephews are there now as well (including author and magazine editor Christopher, who is the son of William F. Buckley Jr. and his late wife, Patricia).

The estate has been broken up into elegant condominiums, some of which are owned by family members and some of which are owned by non-family members.

‘It was very rural’

Although all Great Elm residents can still enjoy its tennis court, swimming pool and well-tended grounds, they can’t share the idyllic childhood that the senior Buckleys enjoyed here.

“My father was an oil man who bought Great Elm in 1923 and there were 10 of us siblings who were brought up here,� Priscilla (who is 86) recalled in an interview with The Journal last week. “It was very rural. We had cows, pigs, chickens and ponies, and all the roads were still dirt. Kids were able to be very free, all you needed was a sandwich, a fishing rod and a pony and you were off for the day without any adults having to mind you.

“Bill always loved it; he loved to ride, he must have ridden every trail, road and mountain path in the area. And he loved to sail down on Lakeville Lake. He was a member of the six-boat regatta.â€�  

Priscilla recalled their childhood activities with obvous relish, calling them “simple fun.� She spoke extensively about the joy that birthday hay rides and “singing the songs you sung in those days� brought not only to Bill but to all of the children.

“It was a happy childhood,� agreed James, who will be 85 on March 9. “We had total freedom to follow our individual interests. Bill definitely had caught the yachting bug,� he said, seated in his cozy living room at Great Elm. “There were races every Saturday with no more than five or six contestants, and there were never two of the same kind of boat so they had to use an involved system of handicapping.�

The close bond of siblings

The 10 children were never in one school for any length of time, until they reached the age of about 15 or 16 (William F. Buckley Jr. graduated from the nearby Millbrook School before heading to Yale University).

As a result, the young Buckleys forged solid bonds and strengthened their imaginations unhindered by the modern trappings of computers and video games.

“We spent a lot of time together. We depended on each other for friendship and for getting into trouble as well,� Priscilla said with a chuckle. “We didn’t have a radio or a TV back then so we had to find our own ways to have fun.�

“We played hide and seek, tag and touch football, all of those bucolic country sports before the days of television,� James agreed.

Growing up in such a large family, the children fell into groups. Aloise, John, Priscilla and James constituted what came to be known as the “top four.�

Jane, William Jr. and Patricia were the next three in line, followed by Reid, Maureen and Carol, who were the youngest of the 10. The older children were not always fully aware of what the younger group was doing; or as Priscilla put it: “Twelve-year-olds don’t always pay too much attention to what 8-year-olds are doing; the younger ones had their own world.�

A free spirit at National Review

However, as the Buckleys proceeded into adult life their worlds merged. Priscilla spoke fondly of the 27 years she spent as managing editor of National Review, the conservative magazine William had founded (she retired in 1999 as senior editor).

“Bill had a wonderful quality as an executive,� she said. “He never nit-picked somebody whom he trusted.�

She characterized the experience of helping to run the magazine with her brother as conflict free, and as a time when she grew  fond of his free-spirited approach to life.

“We had this very endearing situation where Bill would call and say ‘What are you doing next Wednesday?’ and I would say ‘I don’t know, what am I doing next Wednesday?’ The answer would always be that we were going to go off to Tahiti to sail or some such thing,� Priscilla recalled. “I loved that about him, I loved his sense of adventure.�

James cites his time serving as campaign manager for his brother during his run in 1965 for mayor of New York City as an experience that led him to see aspects of his younger sibling that he hadn’t seen before.

“The way Bill has been written about he sometimes comes off as highfalutin, but during my time as campaign manager I was always impressed with how he was received in blue-collar areas,� James said. “The people there were able to relate to him and generally agreed with much of what he was saying.�