The eyes of Susanna (Suni) Agnelli, as befits a scion of Italy's Fiat-founding first family, could at the same time cast an imperious patrician stare and display a wry twinkle. Larger than life in multiple realms, Agnelli, who died May 15 at 87, was a best-selling memoirist (We Always Wore Sailor Suits was the title of one), mother of six, advice columnist, politician, diplomat and innovative philanthropist.
While her brother Gianni ran the car company founded by their grandfather, Suni drifted into politics. In 1974, she became the mayor of her Tuscan coastal village in an effort to save it from rapacious developers. She was eventually elected to Parliament and, in 1995, became Italy's first (and so far only) female Foreign Minister. Blunt and intuitive, with an imposing frame crowned by a mane of white hair, she made sure that Italy played a prominent role in negotiations to end the Bosnian war, at one point delivering a memorable tongue-lashing to her friend U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. "She conveyed an impression of great amusement at the passing parade of overly intense men formulating policy," Holbrooke wrote.
In her advice column for the glossy weekly Oggi, she could also be brusque. When a woman wrote to ask what to do about her husband--who was having an affair with the babysitter--Agnelli answered, "To change a husband is complicated. Changing the babysitter is easier, but remember to get an ugly one." After her brother's death in 2003, she worked to keep control of Fiat in the family and lived long enough to see the once troubled automaker poised to take over Chrysler.