Barbara MacGregor knew how to throw a party in D.C.

A daughter of Duluth, Barbara MacGregor played cheerful host to presidents and the political elite, bringing Midwestern informality to her famous Washington parties.

MacGregor, whose husband Clark MacGregor was a Republican member of the House of Representatives and an aide to President Richard Nixon, died of respiratory failure on June 19 in Washington.

She was 85.

She and her husband were personal friends of President Gerald Ford and the First Lady, Betty. She played bridge with the likes of former Supreme Court Justices William Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor.

Former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger and Katherine Graham, the former Washington Post publisher, often gathered in the basement family room of their home, the preferred venue for her parties.

"She took a mischievous delight in bringing political friends and foes together," said her daughter, Laurie MacGregor of Hanover, N.H.

After her mother had once seated Graham between two political foes, the publisher said that she never had so much fun with her enemies, Laurie MacGregor reported.

On one occasion, sensing that he was tired, she asked, "Don't you think you could go home now?"

Born Barbara Spicer, she attended the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth and at 19 moved to New York to attend a fashion school. She worked at Macy's and as a buyer at B. Altman's in New York and the former Dayton's Department Store in Minneapolis.

As a congressman's wife, she moderated fund-raising fashion shows and was active in the Junior League and children's charities in Minnesota, said her daughter.

A member of the Congressional Wives Club in Washington since 1961, she led several fund-raising balls in the 1970s.

She moved to Washington with her family in 1961, after her husband, a lawyer in Minneapolis, won his congressional seat.

McGregor later replaced former Attorney General John Mitchell as head of the Committee to Re-Elect the President during Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign and was called to testify at the Watergate hearings.

MacGregor joined United Technologies in Washington in 1973 and died in 2003.

In retirement, Barbara MacGregor enjoyed playing classical and jazz piano, and bridge.

Her daughter said she "wasn't exactly tactful," but she was a practical, informal hostess.

"My mother often said, 'Well, what do you expect. I'm from Duluth," as if that explained a lot, and it did," said her daughter. "Everyone wanted to be invited to Barbara MacGregor's parties."