Rock Hudson & Loyd Paxton

Just got back from lunch (yes, it was a long one) with the dashing Loyd Taylor of design duo Loyd Paxton. Talked for hours. I learned that Loyd and Paxton (who met in college circa 1960) got their start in the antique business when a woman named Mary McCormick, related to that famous Chicago family (either the McCormick Reaper or McCormick Place), called and said she was moving to Amarillo, and would they please take some of her antiques on consignment. Dallas was a much smaller community in those days–less than 300,000 people. Had no idea how or to whom they would sell them, but they said yes. There they were on Sale Street when a designer came through the shop and picked up Mrs. McCormick’s trestle table and twelve chairs. His client: the late great Rock Hudson.