U.S. Ambassador. She was an American socialite, political hostess, along with being the United States Ambassador to Luxembourg. Born Pearl Reid Skirvin, the daughter of William Balser Skirvin, a wealthy Oklahoma oil tycoon and founder of the Skirvin Hotel, she changed her first name to "Perle". She was educated in private schools and after graduation, studied voice in Chicago. In February of 1917 she married in New York City, George Mesta, an Italian-American, who was the founder of Pittsburgh's Mesta Machine Company and a major contributor to the Republican Party. Her husband was called to government service in Washington D.C. as a defense-industry consultant during World War I. After the war, she and her husband traveled about Europe. She became a widow in 1925 when her husband died suddenly of heart failure, and though romantically linked with Vice President Charles Curtis, never remarried or had children. She inherited 15 million dollars upon her husband's death. By the time of her husband's death, she had gained access to powerful political people in Washington, D.C. and became known as the "Hostess with the Mostest". Whether entertaining at her luxurious penthouse atop the Sheraton Park Hotel, her colonial home in Oklahoma or at her 32-room, seaside mansion, the "Midclyffe", in Newport, Rhode Island, her official voting residence, the event was sure to be a hit. Her secret, she revealed once, was "cool guests, cool music, hot food and a warm hostess". As a Christian Scientist, she never drank alcohol, yet she did not hesitate to serve it. Her life inspired Irving Berlin's 1950 Tony-winning satirical Broadway musical, "Call Me Madam", and only enhanced her fame as "the Hostess with the Mostest". The play was later adapted in 1953 to a film by the same name. Using her two inherited fortunes, she gave galas fundraisers for the Republican Party. Her most memorable party was in London in 1953. The guests included members of the royal family, Hollywood film stars, diplomats, politicians and military generals. Members of Scotland Yard had the task of guarding the jewels of 125 dinner guests and another 575 guests attending the dance that followed. In the 1940s, she became too liberal for the Republican Party, thus changing to the Democrat Party, supporting Harry Truman. She maintained intimate friendships with First Ladies Bess Truman and Mamie Eisenhower and with Rose Kennedy. In 1949 President Truman named her United States Minister to Luxembourg, the fifth smallest country in the world, making her the nation's third woman to be appointed to this office. Reaching international attention, she campaigned for passage of the Equal Right Amendment and joined the National Woman's Party in 1938. She resigned her diplomatic post on April 13, 1953. Switching back to the Republican party in 1961, she announced to society that she was backing candidate Richard Nixon. Attending his inaugural ball in 1969, she continued to entertain lavishly and expensively at her three homes for another fourteen years, her two fortunes providing for such excess. She had been inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1951. After relocating to Oklahoma to be near her brother and her nieces and nephews, she died of hemolytic anemia at age 92. Listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places, the Mesta Park neighborhood is named in tribute to its former resident.