#34: Dinner Fit for a Queen
Over the last two White House state dinners honoring the Queen of England, there were three repeat guests: HM Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Phillip, and Arnold Palmer.
Palmer attended both the 1991 event and the 2007 dinner, put on by President George HW Bush and President George W Bush, respectively. His wife of nearly 50 years, Winnie, accompanied him to the first, and his second wife, Kit, was at the second. Together the dinners included a who’s who of VIPs from entertainment, business and politics. Though honored, Palmer admitted to the press in 2007 that the second Queen’s event was his “fifth or sixth state dinner—I can’t remember.” No wonder, considering that, among others, Palmer attended dinners for the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in 1973; for the Prime Minister of Singapore the same year (Ava Gabor was also there); and for UK Prime Minister David Cameron in 2012, though that was an “official” dinner, not a state, technically speaking—but who's counting?
