Astor, Brooke

Born Roberta Brooke Russell, March 30, 1902, in Portsmouth, NH; died of pneumonia, August 13, 2007, in Briarcliff Manor, NY. Philanthropist. Brooke Astor was often referred to as the last of the grand dames of American society. A noted philanthropist who came into an immense fortune upon the 1959 death of her third husband, Astor spent the next four decades giving away nearly $200 million to various New York City-based charities, social causes, and cultural institutions. When her remarkable life ended at the age of 105, she was lauded by the New York Times as an “Aristocrat of the People” in the headline of her obituary. That article also quoted an oft-repeated aphorism of hers borrowed from a Thornton Wilder play: “Money is like manure; it’s not worth a thing unless it’s spread around.”

Roberta Brooke Russell was born on March 30, 1902, before the Wright Brothers made the world’s first successful airplane flight. Her father was a high-ranking Marine Corps officer who served as commander of the armed-forces branch during the 1930s, and Astor’s early life included stays in several exotic locales, such as China, Haiti, Panama, and other places where her father was stationed. An only child, she was often alone, and occupied her time by writing short stories. In her teens she attended the Madeira School in Virginia, and was married at age 17 to Princeton graduate J. Dryden Kuser, son of one of the original investors in the Fox Movie Studios, which later lent its name to the news and entertainment empire. The union produced one son, Anthony, but was an unhappy one; Astor later revealed that her husband drank, gambled, and was physically abusive to the point of breaking her jaw when she was pregnant. After a decade, they divorced, and Astor moved to New York City as a single parent.

Astor’s second marriage to stockbroker Charles “Buddie” Marshall was a much happier one, and her son Anthony would later take his stepfather’s surname. She remained active on New York’s social circuit and in a number of charitable and cultural organizations, even working as a volunteer nurse at a veterans’ hospital during World War II. For a time she served as features editor at House & Garden, but, with her characteristic humor, claimed that “my value to” its editor in chief—according to her Washington Post tribute by Adam Bernstein—“was that I could get people to let me photograph their houses, their gardens, their children, their stables, their linen closets, dress closets, and kitchen cupboards.”

Widowed in 1952, Astor was soon courted by Vincent Astor, scion of one America’s oldest fortunes founded by fur trader John Jacob Astor, believed to be the first U.S. millionaire. Vincent’s father died during the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, and he was immensely wealthy. They wed in 1953, but he died just six years later. In his will he left her in charge of the Vincent Astor Foundation, which handed out almost $200 million in grants until she closed it in 1997. Unlike other charitable foundation executives, Astor reviewed all grant applications and often visited the numerous organizations that requested funds. These included homeless shelters, after-school programs for low-income students, and scores of other good-works programs. She also donated generously to New York’s major cultural institutions or landmarks, among them the New York Public Library, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Bronx Zoo, and the Apollo Theater.

Astor was 95 years old when she closed the Foundation, stating that her age was the sole reason for her decision, but she remained in remarkably good health well into her nineties. Long a fixture at parties and other social events on New York’s social scene, she had homes on Park Avenue, on the coast of Maine, and in Westchester County. After her 100th birthday fete, thrown by a Rockefeller, she was rarely seen in public, and rumors of her declining health circulated. Her plight became front-page news in July of 2006 when her grandson accused his father, Anthony Marshall, of elder abuse and financial mismanagement of her assets. A judge found no evidence of actual abuse, but Astor’s legal guardianship was transferred to her longtime friend Annette de la Renta, wife of the fashion designer Oscar de la Renta, who moved her to the 65acre Westchester County home, Holly Hill, in Briarcliff Manor, New York. She died there on August 13, 2007, from pneumonia. Three months later her 83year-old son was charged with several criminal counts of embezzlement and fraud, including persuading his mother to change her will when she was of diminished mental capacity. He was even accused, in the press, of delaying the installation of her tombstone at her grave in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which according to her wishes read, “I had a wonderful life.”

Astor’s legacy remains the numerous programs and institutions that benefited from her generosity, few of which bear her famous name. She once defined power in an interview as “the ability to do good things for others,” according to the Washington Post. “The act of giving makes me powerful inside. I would tell anyone, if you have enough money for three meals a day and you’re not too busy, you ought to do something for others.”

At the time of her death, Astor was 105 years old. She is survived by her son, Anthony; grandsons Philip and Alec, and three great-grandchildren.

Sources: Chicago Tribune, August 14, 2007, sec. 3, p. 6; CNN.com, http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/13/astor.obit.ap/index.html (August 14, 2007); Los Angeles Times, August 14, 2007, p. B8; New York Times, August 14, 2007, p. A1, p. C16; People, August 27, 2007, p. 76; Times (London), August 15, 2007, p. 46; Washington Post, August 14, 2007, p. B6.

—Carol Brennan