Born on October 12, 1889, in Sturgis, Michigan, Perle Skirvin was the daughter of a former salesman who struck it rich in oil and real estate in Oklahoma and Texas. She grew up in Oklahoma City and was educated privately. In 1917 she married George Mesta, a wealthy Pittsburgh manufacturer. While he was serving in Washington, D.C., during World War I, she had her first introduction to politics and Washington society. After the war they traveled extensively in Europe. By the time of his death in 1925 Mesta had acquired a large acquaintanceship in the worlds of business and politics.
In 1929 Mesta settled in Newport, Rhode Island, where she soon became a leading hostess. About 1935 she began to devote much time to active political work. She joined the National Woman╒s party and became an effective lobbyist on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment; she was also chairman of the party╒s public relations committee for a time. In electoral politics she supported the Republican party until 1940 and the Democratic party thereafter. About that time she moved her residence to Washington, D.C., and soon became one of the capital╒s leading hostesses. She was an early patroness of Senator Harry S. Truman and was greatly helpful to him in the elections of 1944 and especially 1948, when she served on the finance committee of the Democratic campaign. (She had earlier been hostess to Margaret Truman╒s coming-out party in 1946.) She was co-chairman of Truman╒s inaugural ball in January 1949. In June of that year Truman nominated her for the post of U.S. minister to Luxembourg, and she was confirmed and sworn in July. She was the first to hold the post, diplomatic relations with the duchy having previously been handled by the ambassador to Belgium. She served in the post until replaced by the Republican administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in September 1953.
Her appointment had served to inspire Irving Bering to write a hit musical, Call Me Madam, in which Ethel Merman starred in 1950╨1952. During the 1950s Mesta continued to reign as Washington╒s premiere hostess, as the informal charm and gaiety of her entertaining attracted the cream of international society. The advent of a new social atmosphere with the Kennedy administration began a decline in her influence. In 1960 she published Perle: My Story. She died in Oklahoma City on March 16, 1975.
