I see that the death of Brooke Astor, socialite and philanthropist, has gone largely unnoticed in the political blogosphere:
NEW YORK – Brooke Astor, the civic leader, philanthropist and high society fixture who gave away nearly $200 million to support New York City’s great cultural institutions and a host of humbler projects, died Monday. She was 105.
Astor, who recently was the center of a highly publicized legal dispute over her care, died of pneumonia at Holly Hill, her Westchester County estate in Briarcliff Manor, family lawyer Kenneth Warner said.
“Brooke was truly a remarkable woman,” longtime family friend David Rockefeller said. “She was the leading lady of New York in every sense of the word.”
Although a legendary figure in New York City and feted with a famous gala on her 100th birthday in March 2002, Astor was mostly interested in putting the fortune that husband Vincent Astor left to use helping others.
Her efforts won her a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 1998.
“Money is like manure, it should be spread around,” was her oft-quoted motto. There has been a lot to spread in the family ever since Vincent Astor’s great-great-grandfather, John Jacob Astor, made a fortune in fur trading and New York real estate.
Brooke Astor gave millions to what she called the city’s “crown jewels” – among them the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Natural History, Central Park and the Bronx Zoo.
She also funded scores of smaller projects: Harlem’s Apollo Theater; a new boiler for a youth center; beachside bungalow preservation; a church pipe organ; furniture for homeless families moving in to apartments.
Her final years were, apparently, not happy ones:
Papers filed in July 2006 alleged her final years were marred by neglect, and in a settlement three months later her son, Anthony Marshall, was replaced as her legal guardian with Annette de la Renta, wife of the fashion designer Oscar de la Renta.
Marshall’s son Philip Marshall, a professor at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, had alleged that his father was looting his grandmother’s estate and allowing her to live in filthy conditions at her Park Avenue duplex. Anthony Marshall, a former diplomat and sometime Broadway producer who won Tony awards in 2003 and 2004, denied any wrongdoing.
In December, a Manhattan judge ruled that claims “regarding Mrs. Astor’s medical and dental care, and the other allegations of intentional elder abuse” by Anthony Marshall were not substantiated.
I think there’s a lot here to ponder. If wealth, honor, venerable status, social position, and good deeds are not enough to ensure a decent and dignified deterioration and final demise, what are the rest of us to do? Perhaps we should all resign ourselves to the notion that it is very likely inevitable that each of us will eventually come to rely on the kindness of strangers.
from Contentions
I think it’s not the kindness of strangers, but the kindness of our families, on which we must rely. That seems to have failed Mrs. Astor, sadly.