Roy Cohn's Yacht

(by Amy Phillips Penn)

It was my Great Aunt Libby’s birthday, and she was protesting, rather disingenuously, about having a party. “I really didn’t want to celebrate my birthday this year," she said, "but the children and Roy insisted."

Roy was Roy Cohn, the Roy Cohn, her nephew by marriage.

Libby had stood by Roy through McCarthyism and his almost universal condemnation, ending with his disbarment shortly before he died (she was named as his only survivor in his New York Times obituary). She was loyal, and he returned the favor by treating her like a queen. Every July he hosted her birthday hoopla on his yacht, the Defiance.