Doris Duke

American philanthropist and tobacco heiress Doris Duke (1912 - 1993) inherited a large family fortune that enabled her to pursue a variety of interests in a lifetime rife with controversy and rumor. Although she lived a lavish lifestyle and was sometimes self-indulgent and eccentric, she was also an astute businesswoman and supported a number of public causes. When she was 21, she established the Independent Aid foundation, which later became the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. It is estimated that she gave away more than $400 million during her lifetime, often as anonymous contributions. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation continues to provide grants in programs supporting the arts, environment, medical research, and child welfare.

Early Life

Doris Duke was born on November 22, 1912, in New York City, the only child of James and Nanaline Holt Inman Duke. Her father, James Buchanan "Buck" Duke, founded the American Tobacco Company and, with brother Newton Duke, the Southern Power Company, later known as Duke Power, a Duke Energy Company. A wealthy businessman and philanthropist, James Duke contributed his name and money to various institutions. When he donated $40 million to Trinity College in North Carolina, his native state, the institution changed its name to Duke University.

Duke's family had made its fortune in tobacco in North Carolina. At the end of the Civil War, Duke's grandfather, Washington Duke, formed a cartel of farmers that developed into a thriving business that was inherited by James Duke, who formed the American Tobacco Company in 1890. The company was the largest tobacco trust in the United States until the government forced it to dissolve in 1911. James Duke then invested in real estate and started the Southern Energy Company. By the time Doris Duke was born, her father had amassed a fortune of nearly $80 million, and newspapers called her "the richest little girl in the world" and "million dollar baby."

James Duke doted on his daughter, and Doris Duke led a fairy-tale existence in her early life. She grew up in residences described as "American castles." These included a home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the "Rough Point" summer home in Newport, Rhode Island; and the "Duke Farms" in Hillsborough, New Jersey. When she was a child, Duke's chauffer also served as her bodyguard and was with her all of the time, because her very protective father had an obsessive fear that she would be kidnapped.

As a young girl, Doris was physically awkward and emotionally shy. By the time she was 13, she was almost six feet tall. She also had a prominent chin. As a result, she was very self conscious and felt extremely uncomfortable by all of the public attention that the family name drew to her.

Inherited Bulk of Family Fortune

In the winter of 1925, when Doris was 12, James became ill with pneumonia and lingered until October. When he died, he reportedly told her, "Trust no one." It was advice she seemed to ignore often as she grew older.

When James Duke died, he left most of his fortune to his daughter. The family fortune had been significantly reduced by the stock market crash of 1929. Still, Doris inherited $30 million. Doris' mother, Nanaline, only received a modest trust fund, which strained the mother-daughter relationship. The rest went to the Duke Endowment, a foundation James established to serve the people of the Carolinas. When Doris Duke was 14, she sued her mother to stop her from selling family assets.

For years, rumors would circulate about the Duke family and, later, especially about Doris. One that gained currency around this time is that Nanaline, seeking to hasten James' death, left her ill husband locked in the bedroom for days with the windows opened.

Developed Philanthropic Purpose During Depression

Unlike the rest of the country, Duke was unaffected by the deprivations of the Great Depression. She was discomforted however, by the news coverage that families like hers' received. The press and the public developed a fascination for the lives of the rich and famous. The newspapers especially liked to report about the extravagant and frivolous lifestyles of wealthy young heiresses to readers who were both captivated and repulsed. Because of their large fortunes, Barbara Hutton ("the poor little rich girl") and Duke were nicknamed the "Gold Dust Twins." Hutton enjoyed the coverage, but Duke loathed it, and she retreated even farther from the spotlight.

But the economic climate did instill in her a sense of philanthropic purpose. As she got older, she kept close tabs on her father's endowment to Duke University, making sure that his wishes were being carried out. The Duke family contributed a great amount to public programs, and Duke later managed the donations. When she was just 21, she established a foundation called Independent Aid, which later became the Doris Duke Foundation. It is estimated that she gave away more than $400 million in anonymous contributions throughout her life.

Married Politician James Cromwell

By the early 1930s, Duke had begun to chafe under the control of her domineering mother. She had wanted to attend college, but her mother would not allow it. Instead, Nanaline took Doris on a grand tour of Europe. In London, she presented her socially withdrawn daughter as a debutante.

In 1935, to free herself from the maternal domination, Duke married James H.R. Cromwell, an aspiring politician. She was 23 years old. News of the hasty marriage shocked everyone. The 39-year-old Cromwell, who was rich, but not as rich as Duke, reputedly was a socialite who had a taste for wealthy women. His ex-wife was Delphine Dodge, heiress to an automobile fortune.

The couple took a two-year honeymoon around the world and then settled in Hawaii, where they built a house that they called Shangri-La, after the mythical paradise made famous in James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon. When Cromwell ran for public office, Duke tried to campaign for him, but the press was more interested in her. This would strain their marriage. Eventually, Cromwell was appointed Minister to Canada, but Duke went back to Hawaii, to the privacy that she cherished so much.

Lost Her Only Child

In 1940, the couple had a child, Arden, who died only 24 hours after being born. Duke would mourn the loss the rest of her life. When doctors told her that she would not be able to have any more children, Duke was so distraught that she consulted with psychics in an attempt to contact the deceased daughter. The death of Arden further weakened her marriage. In three years, Duke and Cromwell would be divorced.

Meanwhile, rumors and speculation about Duke's behaviors and affairs, which would plague her all of her life, had began circulating in the press and high society. When Duke had become pregnant, it was suggested that any number of men besides Cromwell could have been the father.

Went to Work in World War II

During World War II, Doris worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt. True to her philanthropic instincts, she only took a salary of one dollar a year. Pampered as a child, Duke now found that working was fun. She would later say that she felt that this was the most useful period of her life.

In 1945, she began a short-lived writing career when she became a foreign correspondent for the International News Service, reporting from different cities across the war-ravaged Europe. After the war, she moved to Paris and continued to work, writing for the magazine Harper's Bazaar.

By this time, Duke had outgrown her physical awkwardness and was an attractive women. She had relationships with some well-known men. Among them were writer Louis Bromfield, British Parliament member Alec Cunningham-Reid, actor Errol Flynn, United States Army General George Patton, and surfing champion Duke Kahanamoku.

In Europe, she met the man who would become her second husband, Porfirio Rubirosa, a Dominican diplomat and reputed playboy and fortune hunter. Duke was fascinated by his reputation as a great lover. They had an affair that quickly led to a marriage proposal. Before the wedding, the U.S. Government drew up a reportedly iron-clad pre-nuptial agreement for Duke. Not surprisingly, the marriage lasted only a year. Duke would never marry again.

Pursued Varied Interests

Leaving her bad marriages behind, Duke entered a period in her life when she traveled around the world, pursuing a variety of interests. She traveled to exotic places and mixed with different cultures. She met with Indian mystics and African witch doctors, and wandered with Massai warriors in Africa.

Art became one of her passions and, throughout her travels, she collected treasures from all parts of the world. She acquired priceless collections of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. Her tastes could be rather eccentric. She built a complete Thai village at her 2700-acre New Jersey farm.

She also became interested in the performing arts. She liked music and became an accomplished jazz pianist and wrote songs. Also, she took up belly dancing and even spent weekends singing in a black gospel choir at Southern Baptist meetings in the United States.

While Duke globe trotted, she employed a permanent staff of over 200 to oversee her five homes, which now also included a hillside mansion in Beverly Hills called "Falcon Lair" (the former home of silent movie star Rudolph Valentino).

Although her lifestyle was unconventional and her behavior sometimes eccentric, Duke was very responsible when it came to her inheritance. She had good business sense and, during her lifetime, Duke quadrupled her father's fortune.

In addition to her artistic pursuits, she developed a passion for restoration. Also she became an environmentalist and had a keen interest in conservation and horticulture.

Her homes reflected her interests. At the Jersey farm, she designed elaborate indoor display gardens that reflected various regions of the world. In 1964, she opened them to the public. She also became involved in restoration projects in Newport, one of America's oldest towns.

In 1968, Duke founded the Newport Restoration Foundation to restore some of Newport's oldest structures and to revitalize tourism. It was speculated that this was an appeasement for something that had happened in that town two years before. In October 1966, Duke ran over and killed her interior decorator, Edward Tirella, with her car as he was trying to open the gate to her mansion. Duke claimed her foot accidentally slipped to the accelerator. Tirella was dragged across the street and crushed against a tree. The circumstances were suspicious and the rumors started to fly. According to stories, Duke and Tirella were lovers, and Tirella had planned on leaving her. An investigation into the incident was dropped a week later. Police called it an "unfortunate accident." Fueling more rumors and speculation, the Chief of Police retired a month later and Tirella's family received a large sum of money after a civil suit.

Afterward, Duke became even more reclusive, tending to her charities and supporting the performing arts. She continued buying more art, and her collection became increasingly odd. She bought an old airplane from a Middle Eastern businessman. As part of the deal, Duke had to adopt two camels. She named them "Baby" and "Princess," and the animals lived at Rough Point, where they were free to eat all the vegetation on the grounds.

Adopted Chandi Heffner

As Duke aged, her life became even more bizarre. Her close circle of friends would include a strange cast of characters. In 1985, she met Chandi Heffner, a 32-year-old Hari Krishna devotee. Duke believed that Heffner was the reincarnation of her daughter, Arden. In a peculiar arrangement, in 1988, the 76-year-old Duke legally adopted the 35-year-old Heffner and bought her a $1 million ranch in Hawaii, where the two lived together as mother and daughter. For three years, Duke doted on her "daughter." She even named Heffner in her will. However, the two often fought.

During this period, Heffner's boyfriend, James Burns, became Duke's bodyguard. Also, Heffner introduced Duke to Bernard Lafferty who, according to accounts, was a poor and unintelligent Irishman who liked to drink. Previously, he had worked as a butler for singer Peggy Lee. Now, he became very close to Duke, and he became her butler.

Suffered Declining Health

Duke's friends, family, and acquaintances viewed this as a very disturbing development. Lafferty became very fixated on his new employer and began to isolate her. As Duke's health grew worse in her later years, Lafferty would prevent visitors from seeing her. He also interfered with her staff, preventing them from performing basic functions as he watchfully hovered over Duke.

In 1991, Duke, who was now 79 years old, ended her relationship with Heffner and reversed the adoption. The year before, in a suspicious incident, Duke suffered a fall and was knocked unconscious in her Hawaii home. Lafferty claimed the Heffner and Burns were plotting against Duke. He took his employer to her home in Beverly Hills. At this point, Duke suffered from severe depression.

Back in California, Lafferty encouraged Duke to have several operations, including a face lift and knee replacement surgery. The knee surgery was unsuccessful. Duke suffered constant pain and was confined to a wheelchair. In the months before she died, Duke was in and out of hospitals and was heavily sedated with morphine pain killers.

She died in her bed at Falcon Lair on October 28, 1993, a few weeks short of her 81st birthday. She died without family or friends nearby. Only Lafferty was at her side. Those who knew Duke believed her death came as a result of overmedication. Suspicion was cast on Lafferty, as he had previously dismissed and replaced Duke's physicians. However, no autopsy was performed. Duke was cremated within 24 hours and her ashes scattered into the Pacific Ocean.

At the time she died, Duke's estate was worth over one billion dollars. In her will, she left the majority of her estate to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. To everyone's astonishment and displeasure, Lafferty was named trustee of the Foundation. He also was given a payment of over $4 million dollars and a lifetime annuity of $500,000. Although the Foundation's directors carefully gave out the monies as stipulated in Duke's will, Lafferty began to spend money lavishly.

Eventually, he was ousted from control after Duke's lawyers accused him of mishandling her fortune. A California court deemed Lafferty unfit to handle such an important charity. Lafferty died in November 1996, reportedly depressed and bitter.

Suspicions about Duke's death lingered, but, in 1996, after an 18-month investigation, the Los Angeles district attorney's office concluded there was no credible evidence to suggest that Duke had been murdered.

Charitable Legacy

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation continues to support social, cultural, and health-related programs today. Headquartered in New York and governed by an eight-member Board of Trustees, its mission is "to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, wildlife conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties." Specifically, it awards grants in four programs: arts, environment, medical research, and child abuse prevention.

By the end of 2002, DDCF had approved 363 grants totaling more than $335 million to nonprofit organizations throughout the United States. The foundation expected to approve approximately $14 million in new grants in 2003. The foundation also oversees Duke's properties, parts of which are open to the public.

Periodicals

The Associated Press, February 28, 1996.

Rhode Island Roads Magazine, January 2003.

Online

"About Doris Duke," About.com,http://gonewengland.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Ffdncenter.org%2Fgrantmaker%2Fdorisduke%2Fabout.html%23dorisduke (January 8, 2003).

"Background on Duke Farms - Hillsborough, New Jersey," The Foundation Center,http://fdncenter.org/grantmaker/dorisduke/dukefarmsbgrd.pdf (January 8, 2003).

"Doris Duke," Biography.com,http://www.biography.com/search/article.jsp?aid=9542083&search= (January 8, 2003).

"Doris Duke," Divas - The Site,http://home2.planetinternet.be/verjans/Society_Divas/doris_duke_a.htm (January 8, 2003).

"Doris Duke," Gene@star - Famous Geneology,http://www.geneastar.org/en/bio.php3?choix=duke (January 8, 2003).

For the singer, see Doris Duke (soul singer)

Doris Duke
Doris Duke (on right), shown with her first husband James H. R. Cromwell
Born	Doris Duke November 22, 1912(1912-11-22) New York, New York
Died	October 28, 1993 (aged 80) Beverly Hills, California
Residence	Beverly Hills, California Honolulu, Hawaii Hillsborough Township, New Jersey New York City, New York Newport, Rhode Island
Occupation	Philanthropist socialite
Spouse(s)	James H. R. Cromwell (m. 1935–1943) «start: (1935)–end+1: (1944)»"Marriage: James H. R. Cromwell to Doris Duke" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Duke) Porfirio Rubirosa (m. 1947–1951) «start: (1947)–end+1: (1952)»"Marriage: Porfirio Rubirosa to Doris Duke" Location: (linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Duke)
Children	Arden Cromwell (1940) died after one day Chandi Duke Heffner
Parents	James Buchanan Duke Nanaline Holt Inman
Relatives	Washington Duke, grandfather

Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American heiress, horticulturalist, art collector, and philanthropist.

Contents 1 Family and early life 2 Adult life 3 Homes 4 Marriages 5 Philanthropy 6 Death 7 Trusts and wills 8 Doris Duke in popular culture 9 References 10 External links

Family and early life

Duke was the only child of tobacco and electric energy tycoon James Buchanan Duke and his second wife, Nanaline Holt Inman, widow of Dr. William Patterson Inman. Her father died in 1925 when Doris was twelve, leaving approximately half of his estate to The Duke Endowment with the remainder, estimated at $100 million, going to Doris.

Duke spent her early childhood at Duke Farms, James Buchanan Duke's 2,700 acre (11 km²) estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. At the age of 14, Duke took her mother to court and successfully prevented the sale of the property.^[1] Following the death of her father, Duke was raised in a Manhattan mansion at 1 East 78th Street which later became the home of New York University's Institute of Fine Arts.

Duke's mother died in 1962, leaving her jewelry and a coat.^[2]

Adult life

When Duke came of age, she used her wealth to pursue a variety of interests, including extensive world travel and the arts. During World War II, she worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt, taking a salary of one dollar a year. She spoke nine languages.^{[citation needed]} In 1945, Duke began a short-lived career as a foreign correspondent for the International News Service, reporting from different cities across the war-ravaged Europe. After the war, she moved to Paris and wrote for the magazine Harper's Bazaar.

While living in Hawaii, Duke became the first woman to take up competition surfing under the tutelage of surfing champion and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers.^{[citation needed]} A lover of animals, in particular her dogs and pet camels, in her later years Duke became a wildlife refuge supporter, an environmental conservationist, and a patron of historic preservation.

Duke's interest in horticulture led to a friendship with Pulitzer Prize winning author and renowned scientific farmer Louis Bromfield, who operated Malabar Farm, his country home in Lucas, Ohio in Richland County. Today, his farm is part of Malabar Farm State Park, made possible by a donation from Duke that helped purchase the property after Bromfield's death. A section of woods there is dedicated to her and bears her name to this day.

At age 46, Duke started to create Duke Gardens, an exotic public-display garden, to honor her father James Buchanan Duke.^[3] She extended new greenhouses from the Horace Trumbauer conservatory ^[4] at her home in Duke Farms, New Jersey.^[5] Each of the eleven interconnected gardens was a full-scale re-creation of a garden theme, country or period, inspired by DuPont's Longwood Gardens. She designed the architectural, artistic and botanical elements of the displays based on observations from her extensive international travels.^[6] She also labored on their installation, sometimes working 16 hour days.^[7] Display construction began in 1958; a rediscovered image of the night-lighting of the French Gardens in the 1970s is an example of the attention to detail that Duke continued to lavish on the gardens throughout her life.

In 1966 Duke was behind the wheel of a rented car when it lurched forward and crushed interior designer Eduardo Tirella as he was opening the gates of the mansion they were restoring in Newport, R.I. While it was ruled a freak accident by the police, Tirella's family sued and won $75,000 when Duke was found negligent. [5]

Homes

Duke created the Italian Garden to showcase sculpture that her father had collected, such as this replica of Canova's Three Graces

Duke acquired a number of homes. Her principal residence and official domicile^[8] was Duke Farms, her father's 2,700 acre (11 km²) estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Here she created Duke Gardens, 60,000-square-foot (5,600 m²) public Display Gardens that were among the largest in America ^[9].

Duke's other residences were private during her lifetime: she spent summer weekends working on her Newport Restoration Foundation projects while staying at Rough Point, the 115-room English manor-style mansion that she inherited in Newport, Rhode Island. Winters were spent at an estate she built in the 1930s and named "Shangri La" in Honolulu, Hawaii; and at "Falcon's Lair" in Beverly Hills, California, once the home of Rudolph Valentino. She also maintained two apartments in Manhattan: a 9-room penthouse with a 1,000-square-foot (93 m²) veranda at 475 Park Avenue that is currently owned by journalist Cindy Adams ^[10]; and another apartment near Times Square that she used exclusively as an office for the management of her financial affairs. She purchased her own Boeing 737 jet and redecorated the interior to travel between homes and on her trips to collect art and plants. Duke was a hands-on homeowner, climbing a ladder to a three-story scaffolding to clean tile murals in the courtyard of Shangri La^[11], and working side by side with her gardeners at Duke Farms.

Three of Duke's residences are currently managed by subsidiaries of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and have some public access. Duke Farms in New Jersey is managed by the Duke Farms Foundation; a video tour of former Duke Gardens is available. Rough Point was deeded to the Newport Restoration Foundation in 1999 and opened to the public in 2000. Tours are limited to 12 people each. Shangri-La is operated by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; small personal tours and an online virtual tour are available^[12].

Marriages

Duke married twice, the first time in 1935 to James H. R. Cromwell, the son of Palm Beach, Florida society doyenne Eva Stotesbury. Cromwell, a New Deal advocate, used his wife's fortune to enter the political arena, becoming U.S. Ambassador to Canada in 1940. The couple had a daughter, Arden, who lived for only a day. They divorced in 1943.

On September 1, 1947, while in Paris, Duke became the third wife of Porfirio Rubirosa, a diplomat from the Dominican Republic and notorious playboy. 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 in this alliance. Although her lawyers had protected her financial interests with a pre-nuptial agreement, she still gave Rubirosa several million dollars in gifts, including a stable of polo ponies, sports cars, a converted B-25 bomber, and, finally, a 17th-century house in Paris in the divorce settlement. While she subsequently had a number of relationships, Duke never remarried.

Philanthropy

Duke’s first major philanthropic act was to establish the Duke Gardens Foundation to endow the public display gardens she started to create at Duke Farms in 1958. Her Foundation stated that Duke Gardens "reveal the interests and philanthropic aspirations of Duke, as well as an appreciation for other cultures and a yearning for global understanding."^[4]. Duke Gardens were the center of a controversy^[13] over the decision by the trustees of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to close them on May 25, 2008^[14].

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.

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^[15].

Duke did much additional philanthropic work and was a major benefactor of medical research and child welfare programs. Her foundation, Dependent Aid, created when she was twelve months old, became the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Death

In 1992, at the age of 79, Duke had a facelift. She began trying to walk while she was still heavily medicated and fell, breaking her hip. In January 1993, she underwent surgery for a knee replacement. She was hospitalized from February 2 to April 15. She underwent a second knee surgery in July of that year. A day after returning home from this second surgery, she suffered a severe stroke. Doris Duke died at home on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. The cause was progressive pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest, according to a spokesman for Bernard Lafferty, the executor named by Duke's last will^[8], who was with her at her death^[16]. Although Duke was cremated 24 hours after her death and her ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean as her last will specified^[8], her executor, Bernard Lafferty also sent a small container of the ashes to Marshfield, Missouri, a town that Duke had grown to admire during her years as a world traveler.^{[citation needed]} Duke had visited Marshfield during a large tent revival, where she enjoyed the music. She was a guest in The Dickey House, which is today a bed and breakfast. Duke's ashes were buried in a local cemetery and a stone was placed to honor her memory. She was locally known as a philanthropist, since she often sent large sums of money for various projects, typically without publicity.

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. Duke initially maintained that Heffner was the reincarnation of her only biological child Arden, who died soon after birth in 1940^[17]. 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 law suit brought by Heffner for $65 million.^[18]

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 her friend Marion Oates Charles were named as her trustees.^[19] However a number of lawsuits were filed against the will. At death, Duke's fortune was estimated at $1.3 billion. The most notorious lawsuit^[20] was initiated by Harry Demopoulos, whose company 'Health Maintenance Programs' owed the Duke Estate $600,000^[21]. Demopoulos found out that he had been named co-executor in an earlier will and challenged Lafferty's appointment. Demopoulos also hired a psychiatrist to assist the credibility of convicted felon Tammy Payette^{[citation needed]}, who alleged that Lafferty killed Duke^[22]. However, in 1996, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office ruled there was no evidence of murder.^[18]

A suit was also filed by Duke University, claiming entitlement to a larger share of the Duke assets than the $10 million provided in the will (although Duke's will also stated that any beneficiary who disputed its provisions should receive nothing^[23]).

Litigation involving 40 lawyers at 10 different law firms tied up the Duke estate for nearly three years. Lafferty was ultimately removed by NY courts for using estate funds to support his own lifestyle, and US Trust for failing "to do anything to stop him."^[18] The Surrogate Court of Manhattan overrode Duke's will and appointed new trustees from among those who had challenged it: Harry Demopoulos; J. Carter Brown (later also involved in overturning the will of Dr. Albert C. Barnes^[24]); Marion Oates Charles, the sole trustee from Duke's last will; James Gill, a lawyer; Nannerl O. Keohane, president of Duke University, and John J. Mack, president of Morgan Stanley^[25]. The fees for their lawsuits exceeded $10 million, and were paid by the Duke estate. These trustees now control all assets of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which Doris Duke directed should support medical research, anti-vivisectionism, prevention of cruelty to children or animals, performance arts, wildlife and ecology^[26]. The DDCF also controls funding for the three separate Foundations created to operate Duke's former homes: the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Duke Farms and Newport Restoration Foundation. The trustees have progressively reduced funding for these foundations, stating that Doris Duke's own works are "perpetuating the Duke family history of personal passions and conspicuous consumption."^[27]. Recently these foundations have been forced to sell assets to meet their expenses^[28], and in the case of Duke Gardens, to close entirely.

Doris Duke in popular culture

Several biographies of Duke have been published, most notably Stephanie Mansfield's "The Richest Girl in The World" (Putnam 1994). In 1999, a four-hour made-for-television mini-series (starring Lauren Bacall as Duke and Richard Chamberlain as Lafferty) was aired with the title, Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke. Her life is also the subject of the 2007 HBO film Bernard and Doris, starring Susan Sarandon as Duke and Ralph Fiennes as the butler Lafferty.

References

1. ^ Schwarz, Ted (1997). Trust No One: The Glamorous Life and Bizarre Death of Doris Duke. Vivisphere Publishing. ISBN 978-1892323170. 
2. ^ "US News". Time Magazine. 1962-06-29. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897953,00.html. Retrieved 2008-07-22. "All but passed over in the latest parceling was Skipper's Aunt Doris Duke—Nanaline's daughter—already worth an estimated $70 million, who was merely bequeathed some of her mother's jewelry. When auctioned off by Christies several years ago, those pieces of jewelry, which included a 20 carat diamond ring from Tiffany & Co., fetched over $4,000.000." 
3. ^ "The Gardens at Duke Farms". Skylands Visitor Guide. http://www.njskylands.com/atdukgar.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-02. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "New Greenhouse". Duke Farms. http://www.dukefarms.org/page.asp?pageId=282. Retrieved 2008-05-07. 
5. ^ "History". Duke Farms. http://www.dukefarms.org/page.asp?pageId=4. Retrieved 2008-02-11. 
6. ^ "A Great Estate Opens Its Gates". wired. http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3779. Retrieved 2008-05-10. 
7. ^ Pace, Eric (October 28, 1993). "Doris Duke, 80, Heiress Whose Great Wealth Couldn't Buy Happiness, Is Dead". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE1DB153CF93AA15753C1A965958260. Retrieved 2008-05-07. "Doris Duke, the tobacco heiress and philanthropist whose bittersweet life was woven of luxury, disputes and interludes of deep unhappiness, died yesterday at her house in Beverly Hills, California. She was 80 and had her main residence in Somerset County, N.J. She also had homes on Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan, in Newport, R.I., and Hawaii." 
8. ^ ^{a b c} [1]
9. ^ Garmey, Jane (2008-05-28), "Doris Duke's Storied Gardens Are No More", Wall Street Journal, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121192910041724297.html#, retrieved 2008-05-28 
10. ^ Swanson, Carl (2000-06-05), "Only on Park Avenue, Kids", New York Magazine, http://nymag.com/nymetro/realestate/features/3364/ 
11. ^ Kam, Nadine (2002-11-03), "Fantasyland" (^{[dead link]} – ^{Scholar search}), Honolulu Star Bulletin, http://starbulletin.com/2002/11/03/features/story1.htm 
12. ^ [2]
13. ^ [3]
14. ^ Duke Farms (2008-03-02). "Duke Farms Promotes “Greener” Future". Press release. http://www.dukefarms.org/page.asp?pageId=523. Retrieved 2008-04-14. "it’s the final months of the gardens being on display in the greenhouses that have enchanted visitors since 1964" 
15. ^ Tingley, Nancy. Doris Duke: The Southeast Asian Art Collection. University of Hawaii Press. pp. 93–94. ISBN 978-0824827731. 
16. ^ Pace, Eric (October 28, 1993). "Doris Duke, 80, Heiress Whose Great Wealth Couldn't Buy Happiness, Is Dead". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE1DB153CF93AA15753C1A965958260. Retrieved 2008-05-07. "Doris Duke, the tobacco heiress and philanthropist whose bittersweet life was woven of luxury, disputes and interludes of deep unhappiness, died yesterday at her house in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was 80 and had her main residence in Somerset County, N.J. She also had homes on Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan, in Newport, R.I., and Hawaii." 
17. ^ "Top Three Inheritance Disputes". legalzoom. http://www.legalzoom.com/legal-articles/article15046.html. Retrieved 2008-05-10. 
18. ^ ^{a b c} "Top Three Inheritance Disputes". legalzoom. http://www.legalzoom.com/legal-articles/article15046.html. Retrieved 2009-06-29. 
19. ^ Dukeminier, Jesse; et al.. Wills, Trusts, and Estates. Aspen Publishers. pp. 93–94. 
20. ^ Van Natta, Dan (1996-04-11), "Deal Reached Over the Estate Of Doris Duke", New York Times, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E5D91039F932A25757C0A960958260, retrieved 2008-05-07 
21. ^ "Last Will of Duke, Section 4C". Court TV. http://www.courttv.com/archive/legaldocs/newsmakers/wills/duke.html. Retrieved 2008-09-10. 
22. ^ "Where There's a Will". TruTV crime library. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/criminal_mind/forensics/welner/6.html. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
23. ^ "Last Will of Duke, Section 19". Court TV. http://www.courttv.com/archive/legaldocs/newsmakers/wills/duke.html. Retrieved 2008-09-10. 
24. ^ [4]
25. ^ Van Natta, Dan (1996-04-11), "Deal Reached Over the Estate Of Doris Duke", New York Times, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E5D91039F932A25757C0A960958260, retrieved 2008-05-07 
26. ^ "Last Will of Doris Duke, Section 8". Court TV. http://www.courttv.com/archive/legaldocs/newsmakers/wills/duke.html. Retrieved 2008-09-10. 
27. ^ Sudol, Valerie (2008), "Famed Duke Gardens To Become Ambitious 'Green' Lab", Newhouse News Service, http://www.newhouse.com/famed-duke-gardens-to-become-ambitious-green-laboratory-4.html, retrieved 2008-05-06 
28. ^ "Sale of Rare Carpet to Benefit Newport Restoration Foundation Collections Fund". Newport Restoration Foundation. http://www.newportrestoration.com/pr/CarpetSale08.html. Retrieved 2008-06-04. 

External links

• Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
• Doris Duke biography at the Diva Site
• Thomas D. Mcavoy: James Cromwell, Doris Duke and Frank Murphy attending Jackson Day dinner (Washington DC, 1940)
• Doris Duke at Find a Grave

Persondata
NAME	Duke, Doris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Philanthropist, socialite
DATE OF BIRTH	November 22, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH	New York, New York
DATE OF DEATH	October 28, 1993
PLACE OF DEATH	Beverly Hills, California

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