Second Lady of the United States
After the Watergate scandal in 1974, Gerald Ford named Nelson Rockefeller to serve as his vice president. She became the Second Lady of the United States when her husband became the vice president of Gerald Ford. For the term, the couple moved to Washington, D.C., where they entertained in the vice president's mansion, but lived in their own house. Over the years, the couple also maintained residences in Seal Harbor, Maine, Venezuela, and Manhattan, where they had an apartment on Fifth Avenue designed by Jean-Michel Frank. They also lived at the 3,000-acre (1,200 ha) family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York, named Kykuit.
Her husband died in January 1979, two years after having left the vice presidency. She continued to entertain at 812 Fifth Avenue and at the Rockefeller estate, the Japanese House. In 1982, Happy Rockefeller hosted an event at her Fifth Avenue apartment for Henry Kissinger, celebrating the publication of the second volume of his memoirs. At the time, Happy said she and Kissinger had been friends since around 1962.
In 1985, she lent a tapestry of Picasso's anti-war themed Guernica to the UN, and after a year of cleaning and preservation, it hangs again since 2022 outside the Security Council chambers. In 1991, she was appointed a public delegate to the United Nations by US President George H. W. Bush. She also became president of the board of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center at north Albany, New York. She supported the Philadelphia Orchestra's annual visits to China and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park in New York City, the Central Park Conservancy, and Historic Hudson Valley.
Her residence in Pocantico Hills, Kykuit, was given to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and in 1994 was opened to the public. Afterward, she moved into the Japanese House estate.
