Early Life and Family
Hope Aldrich Rockefeller was born on May 17, 1938 in New York City as the second child and eldest daughter of philanthropist John Rockefeller III and art sponsor Blanchette Ferry Rockefeller. She has two sisters named Alida and Sandra, as well as an older brother, Jay, who went on to become the governor of West Virginia and a US senator from the state. Her paternal grandparents were John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and her great-grandfather was famed industrialist John D. Rockefeller. On her mother’s side, her grandfather was chemical magnate Elon Huntington Hooker.
Newspaper Career
Focused on a career in journalism, Rockefeller went into the newspaper business. She worked for local papers around the country, including Newsday in Long Island, the Village Voice in Manhattan, Washington Monthly in the District of Columbia, and the Santa Fe Reporter in New Mexico. In 1988, Rockefeller bought the Santa Fe Reporter from Richard McCord and became its publisher. She also did some work overseas, including at the English-language paper China Daily in Beijing.
Personal Life and Children
In the summer of 1959, Rockefeller married John Spencer in Irvington, New York. They lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and had three children before they got divorced: Dave, Benjamin, and Theodore. During these years, Hope was the richest person in New Mexico. After getting divorced, Rockefeller retired and moved to the Corona del Mar neighborhood of Newport Beach, California.
