Doris Duke

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Doris Duke : biography

November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993

On September 1, 1947, while in Paris, Duke became the third wife of Porfirio Rubirosa, a diplomat from the Dominican Republic. She reportedly paid his wife, Danielle Darrieux, $1 million to agree to an uncontested divorce. Because of her great wealth, Duke’s marriage to Rubirosa attracted the attention of the U.S. State Department, which cautioned her against using her money to promote political agendas. Further, there was concern that in case of her death, a foreign government could gain too much leverage. Thus, Rubirosa had to sign a pre-nuptial agreement; during the marriage, though, she gave Rubirosa several million dollars in gifts, including a stable of polo ponies, sports cars, a converted B-25 bomber, and, in the divorce settlement, a 17th-century house in Paris. She had a number of relationships, but never remarried. One of Doris Duke’s best friends was Brazilian socialite and "jetsetter" Aimée de Heeren.

She reportedly had numerous affairs, with, among others, Duke Kahanamoku, Errol Flynn, Alec Cunningham-Reid, General George S. Patton, Joe Castro, Louis Bromfield, Charles Asfar, and Leon Amar.

Philanthropy

Duke’s first major philanthropic act was to establish Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934, when she was 21 years old, in order to manage the many requests for financial assistance addressed to her. In 1958, she established the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms. Her Foundation intended that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of the Duke family, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding.". Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008.

In 1968, Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation with the goal of preserving more than eighty colonial buildings in the town. Historic properties include Rough Point, Samuel Whitehorne House, Prescott Farm, the Buloid-Perry House, the King’s Arms Tavern, the Baptist Meetinghouse, and the Cotton House. Seventy-one buildings are rented to tenants. Only five function as museums. She also funded the construction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in India, visited by the Beatles in 1968.

Duke’s extensive travels led to an interest in a variety of cultures, and during her lifetime she amassed a considerable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, numerous pieces were donated to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore.

Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation, which still exists as a private grant-making entity. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was established in 1996, supporting four national grant making programs and Doris Duke’s three estates, Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms.

Trusts and wills

Duke was the life beneficiary of two trusts created by her father, James Buchanan Duke, in 1917 and 1924. The income from the trusts was payable to any children after her death. In 1988, at the age of 75, Duke legally adopted a woman named Chandi Heffner, a 35-year-old Hare Krishna devotee and sister of the third wife of billionaire Nelson Peltz. August 02, 2005 Duke initially maintained that Heffner was the reincarnation of her only biological child Arden, who died soon after birth in 1940. The two women had a falling out, and the final version of Duke’s will specified that she did not wish Heffner to benefit from her father’s trusts; she also negated the adoption. Despite the negation, after Duke’s death, the estate’s trustees settled a lawsuit brought by Heffner for $65 million.

In her final will, Duke left virtually all of her fortune to several existing and new charitable foundations. She appointed her Irish-born butler Bernard Lafferty as executor, who then appointed, as corporate co-executor, US Trust company; Lafferty and his friend Marion Oates Charles were named as her trustees. However a number of lawsuits were filed against the will. At death, Duke’s fortune was estimated at $1.3 billion. The best-known lawsuit was initiated by Harry Demopoulos. In an earlier will, Demopoulos had been named executor and challenged Lafferty’s appointment. Demopolous argued that Mr. Lafferty and his lawyers had cajoled a sick, sedated old woman into giving him control of her estate.