In his diary, Rockefeller close friend Ken Riland used a tone of knowing irony when mentioning Malinda, putting the word stepfather in quotes.

[3] As the British journalist Lady Jeanne Campbell wrote in the London Evening Standard, when the Murphy-Rockefeller involvement became a subject of media scrutiny after the announcement of Rockefeller's filing for divorce from his first wife and Happy Murphy's resignation from his staff, "Already people are comparing Happy Murphy to the Duchess of Windsor when she was plain Mrs.

Echoing the party-wide concerns, an official of the Michigan Republican Party told The New York Times that the couple's potential marriage likely would cost Rockefeller the 1964 presidential nomination.

"[10] Nelson began to drop in the polls and withdrew from the race after losing several primaries, with the election going to Lyndon Johnson after Rockefeller was replaced as the Republican front-runner by Barry Goldwater.

Women's Wear Daily quoted Norman Norell, whose clothes she wore on the campaign trail, as stating "she has that good family, Ivy League look.

She also wore designs by Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass, Chanel, Grès, Dior, Valentino and Donald Brooks.

[11] WWD also noted that she was "known for relaxed charm" and frankness, with the latter to such a point that his 1968 campaign had an internal rule that she was not to be quoted directly.

[1] After discovering tumors in a self-inspection, she underwent surgery on October 17, 1974, in an operation that was described in a news conference by her doctor, Jerome Urban of Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, and her husband.

[12] According to WWD, the combination of Happy Rockefeller and Betty Ford, as well as Shirley Temple, coming public about their cancer treatments helped raise awareness of a disease that had been extremely stigmatized.

[11] Over the years, the couple also maintained residences in Seal Harbor, Maine, Venezuela, and Manhattan, where they had an apartment[11] on Fifth Avenue designed by Jean-Michel Frank.

[2] 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.

[14] 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.

[7] As of 1982, Nelson Rockefeller had donated a large part of the couple's painting collection to the Museum of Modern Art, knowing the estate would be heavily taxed.

[2] In 2018, a large collection of Happy and Nelson Rockefeller's belongings was auctioned at Sotheby's in three sales of around 450 items, with total proceeds expected to exceed $6.1 million.