Martha Mitchell would have been pleased -- and honored -- on her 104th birthday Friday.
Jennifer Louviere Medeiros, the new owner of the Martha Mitchell house, threw a grand opening and reception at Mitchell's childhood home with cake and dainty cucumber sandwiches fit for a Southern belle -- like Martha.
"I now have this connection to Martha and I'm learning more about her every day," Medeiros, who lives in Beverly Hills, Fla., said. "Her civil rights were violated and they [the Nixon Administration] squelched her freedom of speech because she was speaking out and speaking the truth."
Mitchell, a Pine Bluff native, was a major player in the Watergate scandal that led President Richard M. Nixon to resign in lieu of impeachment conviction in 1974. Watergate landed Mitchell's husband, U.S. Attorney General John Mitchell, in prison. He is still the only U.S. attorney general to go to jail.
Martha Mitchell would relay to reporters, including to the Pine Bluff Commercial's Paul Greenberg, scandalous tidbits of information she learned from her husband, giving her the nickname "the Mouth of the South."
Mitchell died May 31, 1976 from bone marrow cancer at age 57. At her funeral a floral arrangement from an unknown fan said, "Martha Was Right." She was buried in Pine Bluff's Bellwood Cemetery.
Medeiros and her two friends -- Pat Thomas Noble and Tania Patterson -- who traveled from Louisiana to help with the grand opening planned to visit the cemetery this weekend.
Martha Mitchell recently gained relevance when Julia Roberts played her in "Gaslit," an eight-part STARZ miniseries.
In 1975, Bob Abbott, a long-time Pine Bluff businessman, bought the house known then as the Ferguson House, which was built around 1887. Abbott's office is across the street and railroad tracks from the blue Mitchell residence.
His late wife had a connection to the house because she took elocution and manner lessons from Mitchell's mother, Arie Beall Ferguson. The Abbott children -- Amanda Abbott Ware and Jordan Abbott -- even grew up giving tours of the home.
All three Abbotts attended the event Friday.
Medeiros discovered the house on a website when she was looking to buy a home on the National Register of Historic Places. She spotted the Mitchell home and called Abbott. A friendship sparked, and now Medeiros has grand plans for the house of America's "original whistleblower," as Amanda Abbott calls Mitchell.
But the Mitchell house won't just be another historic building providing tours.
Medeiros, who has a bachelor's degree in business administration and master's degree in complementary alternative medicine, has a deeper spiritual plan. She wants to host enrichment retreats for mothers and daughters especially since Mitchell got a "bad rap" as a mother.
The Mitchells had one daughter, Marty. Martha Mitchell had an older son, Clyde Jay Jennings, from her first marriage with Clyde Jennings. Marty sided with her dad after the Watergate scandal.
"I think it's sad," Medeiros said. "I'm all about family, and Martha stood up and didn't waiver, and her daughter took John Mitchell's side."
Medeiros envisions having mother-daughter retreats that can help repair and restore relationships at the house and the garden around the house. Medeiros has not reached out to Martha's daughter but she wants to do so.
"I am hoping before I die she will come around," Medeiros said.
Medeiros, a Louisiana native, also said that she has talked to actress Diane Ladd, whose daughter is Hollywood star Laura Dern, about her visions. Ladd, who is also an author, has written books about mother and daughter relationships. She hopes Ladd will play a role in some of the retreats once they start.
Before starting that project, Medeiros has to restore the house, which still has many of the original furnishings and wallpaper from when Mitchell was a child. Mitchell's wedding dress remains on a bed in an upstairs bedroom and the baby grand piano Mitchell played as a child still sits in the living room.
For many Southern women who came of age in the 1970s, Mitchell was an outspoken heroine when women weren't supposed to be heard.
Three friends -- Rhonda Oliver and Linda Massey Thompson of Hampton and Karen Wiscaver of Kingsland -- were inspired by Mitchell during the Watergate scandal and visited the house for the first time Friday.
"She got old tricky Dick, didn't she?" Thompson said while standing under a portrait of Mitchell. "She told it like it is and we need more women like her."