One year ago: Jane Dalton Weinberger

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Jane Dalton Weinberger did not waste her close-up view of Washington’s political elite during the Reagan administration.

The wife of President Reagan’s defense secretary, Caspar W. Weinberger, she founded a company that published more than 100 titles and was herself an author, with books such as ‘As Ever’ in 1991.

‘As Ever’ was a compilation of letters to family and friends over the years with some pointed views about such personalities as former Vice President Spiro Agnew and then-First Lady Nancy Reagan.

‘She was a Maine lady all the way through. She had no airs,’ said her son, Caspar Jr. ‘She was also a very elegant lady who . . . played the Washington scene better than anyone I ever saw.’ She died a year ago at 91.

Her obituary by The Times’ Elaine Woo appeared July 15, 2009.

-- Keith Thursby