Heiress In Handcuffs

The River Oaks Country Club in Houston sits like a plantation mansion amid a vast expanse of magnolias, dogwood, azaleas, and golf greens. Yet the club barely stands out among the equally massive estates -- the mock Taras, Pickfairs, Monticellos, and Bridesheads -- that populate the city's most prestigious neighborhood. One of these trophy properties, a three-story Gothic Revival with a small fountain in front, is where Lea Weingarten grew up.

She lived among the city's social royalty: Neighbors included art patron Dominique DeMenil, ex-Governor John Connally, and the descendants of wildcatters, ranchers, and financiers who had founded Rice University, Humble Oil, and most of the city's other major institutions. In Houston, Lea's family stood alongside these legends. The main pavilion at the Jewish Community Center of Houston was named after her grandfather, a Polish immigrant named Joseph Weingarten who built big grocery store and real estate empires in the Southwest.