August 14, 2007
Recently Dead
Brooke Astor, legendary grande dame of New York society, died yesterday of pneumonia at her suburban estate. She was 105. "I grew up feeling that the most important thing in life was to have good manners and to enhance the lives of others," she said in 1992. She spent most of her life disseminating the fortune left to her by her husband, Vincent Astor. When he died in 1959, he left her $2 million plus the interest off $60 million and endowed a foundation with an additional $67 million to be used for alleviatin human suffering. Feeling that since the money was made in New York it should be spent there, Astor gave to what she called the city's "crown jewels": the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Natural History, Central Park, and the Bronx Zoo – as well as to smaller projects like the Apollo Theater, a youth center, and furniture for homeless families moving into apartments. "Money is like manure," she once said. "It should be spread around." By 1997, Astor had given away approximately $200 million. In 1998, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. With her passing, the city has lost another major landmark. (More; some history)
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