Astor, Brooke (b. 1902)

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Astor, Brooke (b. 1902)

American foundation executive and civic worker. Name variations: Mrs. Vincent Astor. Born Brooke Russell in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in April 1902; daughter of John Henry (a marine commandant) and Mabel (Howard) Russell; Columbia University, LL.D., 1971; married J. Dryden Kuser, in 1918 (divorced, c. 1929); married Charles "Buddie" Marshall (a stockbroker who died in 1952); married Vincent Astor (died 1959), in October 1953; children: (first marriage) Anthony (who took the name of Marshall).

Known as the Fairy Godmother of New York City, Brooke Astor gave away every penny in the family foundation that had been funded by John Jacob Astor's fur trade and real estate fortune. Over a span of 38 years, she handed out $193,317,406 to charitable causes around the city—Carnegie Hall, The Bronx Zoo, the South Street Seaport, industrial projects in the Bronx, rebuilding Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn—then closed the foundation in March of 1998. She was then age 96. Astor received hundreds of awards, including the Governor's Arts Award (May 1985); two awards from President Ronald Reagan: the Presidential Citizen's Medal and The National Medal of Arts Award (both 1988); and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton (1998). She wrote two autobiographies, Patchwork Child (1962) and Footprints (1980), and was a consulting and feature editor for the magazine House and Garden.