Nina Auchincloss Straight

Nina Gore Auchincloss Straight (born 1937), formally known as Nina Steers, is an American author, journalist, and socialite. She is the mother of writer/director Burr Steers and artist Hugh Auchincloss Steers, half-sister of Gore Vidal, step-sister of First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier and actress Lee Radziwill.

Nina Gore Auchincloss was born in 1937 to Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Jr. (1897-1976) and Nina S. Gore (1903-1978). Hugh Auchincloss was an American stockbroker and lawyer. His parents were Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Sr. (1858–1913), a merchant and financier, and Emma Brewster Jennings. Nina S. Gore was the daughter of U.S. Senator Thomas Gore and his wife Nina Belle Kay. Hugh had previously been married to Maya de Chrapovitsky (1899-1990), a Russian noblewoman, from 1925 to 1932. Hugh and Maya had one child, a half brother to Nina, Hugh Dudley Auchincloss III (1927–2015). Nina S. Gore had previously been married to Eugene Luther Vidal, an American commercial aviation pioneer, from 1922 to 1935. Nina and Eugene had one child, a half brother to Nina, the writer Gore Vidal (1925-2012). Hugh and Nina married in 1935. Besides Nina, the marriage produced one additional child, Thomas Gore Auchincloss (born 1937).

Hugh and Nina S. Gore divorced in 1941. In 1942, Hugh remarried for the third and final time to Janet Lee Bouvier (1907-1989), the mother of future First Lady Jacqueline Lee "Jackie" Bouvier (1929–1994) and Caroline Lee Bouvier (born 1933). Hugh and Janet had two children together, Janet Jennings Auchincloss (1945–1985) and James Lee Auchincloss (born 1947). Hugh and Janet remained married until his death in 1976. In June 1942, Nina remarried for the third and final time to Robert Olds (1896-1943). Unfortunately, Robert died of pneumonia on April 28, 1943, after hospitalization for constrictive pericarditis and Libman-Sacks endocarditis, at the age of 46, just prior to his son Robin Olds' graduation from West Point.

In 1955, Auchincloss made her debut at a formal ball with given by her father and stepmother, who lived in McLean, VA, at their summer home, Hammersmith Farm in Newport, Rhode Island. The ball was attended by over 700 guests. In 1957, she inherited a $225,000 (equivalent to $1,919,000 in 2016) trust.

Nina attended the Potomac School in Washington, D.C. and Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. She attended and graduated from Bryn Mawr College, just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Nina subsequently attended and earned a masters degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1961. While she attended Columbia, she worked part-time for columnist Charles Bartlett. In 1964, she earned an M.A. in history from Columbia, her second degree from Columbia. From 1963 until 1971, Nina worked as Washington correspondent and bureau chief for the Chattanooga Times, while raising her three sons.

In 1981, her novel Ariabella: The First, was published by Random House. At the time, she was in her second year of evening law school at American University and was working on a biography of her maternal grandfather, Oklahoma Sen. Thomas Pryor Gore.

In 1957, Nina married Newton Steers (1917–1993), after having briefly dated Ted Kennedy. Jackie Kennedy was her matron of honor at the wedding and then Sen. John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) was one of the groomsmen. During their marriage, Steers became a member of the Maryland State Senate. Together, they had three sons:

• Hugh Auchincloss Steers (1963–1995), an artist.
• Ivan Steers
• Burr Gore Steers (born 1965), a filmmaker.

Nina and Newton separated in 1972 and divorced in 1974. In 1977, Steers was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 8th congressional district. Steers remarried to Inge Wirsich Irwin in 1978, whom he remained married to until his death in 1993.

In 1974, Nina married her second husband, Michael Whitney Straight (1916–2004), a member of the Whitney family who was a publisher and novelist. Straight was the son of Willard Dickerman Straight (1880–1918), an investment banker who died in Michael's infancy, and Dorothy Payne Whitney (1887–1968), a philanthropist. After his mother's remarriage to Leonard Knight Elmhirst (1893–1974), Straight lived in England. The wedding was attended by Janet Auchincloss, Jackie Kennedy, Renata Adler, Beatrice Straight, and Peter Cookson. Nina and Michael's marriage ended in divorce in 1998. He later married Katharine Gould, a child psychiatrist and art historian, whom he remained married to until his death in 2004.

• Ariabella: The First (1981) ISBN 039449346X