Pat Buckley, 80; wife of William F. Buckley Jr.

Pat Buckley, the fundraiser, New York socialite and wife of conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr., died Sunday in Stamford, Conn. She was 80.

She died of septic poisoning after a vascular operation on her left leg, according to the National Review, the magazine founded by her husband in 1955.

Pat Buckley was a fixture in New York’s social circles for four decades. She chaired the annual benefit dinner for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute from 1978 to 1995, raised money for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and supported causes benefiting people with AIDS and Vietnam veterans. She was a supporter of American fashion designers, particularly Bill Blass, and regularly appeared at the industry’s biggest events.

With her tall and slender figure, Buckley was a regal presence at social gatherings. Women’s Wear Daily called her “chic and stunning,” and she moved easily among world leaders, royalty, politicians, artists and philanthropists.

“She was theatrical, witty and exacting,” said Peter Robinson, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, in a tribute to Buckley posted today on the National Review website.

“I saw her flirt with Henry Kissinger, charm Ronald Reagan and dress down a German prince who had insulted one of her friends.”

Patricia Alden Austin Taylor was born in Vancouver, Canada, on July 1, 1926. Her father was a self-made industrialist whose racehorse, Indian Broom, competed against Seabiscuit. She was educated at the Crofton House School in Vancouver.

Buckley met her future husband when she was a student at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. They were married in July 1950 in Vancouver in what was then the city’s biggest wedding.

The Buckleys lived in Hamden, Conn., while her husband was a faculty member at Yale University in New Haven. After he did a nine-month stint with the Central Intelligence Agency in Mexico in 1951, the couple settled in Stamford, where they have lived ever since.

Pat Buckley served as “den mother” to the modern conservative movement, according to the National Review.

She became an American citizen in the 1990s.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by their only child, Christopher, a novelist and political satirist.

She is also survived by two grandchildren, Caitlin and Conor.