Doris Duke facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Doris Duke
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| Born | November 22, 1912 New York City, U.S.
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| Died | October 28, 1993 (aged 80) |
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| Children | 1 |
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Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 – October 28, 1993) was an American billionaire. She inherited a huge fortune from her father. Doris was known for her kindness and love of art and plants. She was often called "the richest girl in the world." Her amazing wealth and lifestyle were often talked about in the news.
Doris had many different interests. In the 1940s, she worked as a news reporter for a short time. She also played jazz piano and learned to surf very well. At her father's large estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey, she created one of the biggest indoor plant displays in the United States. She also worked hard to save over 80 old buildings in Newport, Rhode Island. Doris was good friends with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, a former First Lady of the United States. In 1968, Doris started the Newport Restoration Foundation. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis became its vice president and helped a lot.
Doris continued her charity work into her older years. She supported research for HIV/AIDS, medicine, and helping children. She also gave money to help Black students in the South. These students faced difficulties because of racism. She left most of her estimated $1.3 billion fortune to charity. Today, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation manages her legacy. It supports medical research, preventing cruelty to children and animals, performing arts, and protecting wildlife and nature.
Contents
Early Life and Family
Doris Duke was born in New York City. She was the only child of James Buchanan Duke. He was a very rich businessman who made money from tobacco and hydroelectric power. Her mother was Nanaline Holt Inman. When her father died in 1925, he left most of his money to Doris and her mother. He also gave $17 million to The Duke Endowment, a charity he started. His total fortune was worth a huge amount, from $60 million to $100 million. This money mostly came from his shares in the American Tobacco Company and the company that became Duke Power.
Doris spent her early years at Duke Farms. This was her father's large 2,700-acre (11 km2) estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. When she was young, there was a legal case about her father's will. Doris successfully stopped her mother and others from selling some of the family's properties. One of these was a mansion in Manhattan. It later became part of New York University.
Adult Life and Interests
When Doris turned 18 in 1930, she was introduced to society at a special ball. This event happened at Rough Point, her family's home in Newport, Rhode Island. She received large amounts of money from her father's will when she turned 21, 25, and 30. People sometimes called her the "world's richest girl." Her mother passed away in 1962. She left Doris jewelry, a coat, and an additional $250 million.
As an adult, Doris used her wealth to explore many different interests. She traveled all over the world and loved the arts. She studied singing in New York City with a famous voice teacher. During World War II, she worked in a canteen for sailors in Egypt. She only took a salary of one dollar a year. Doris spoke French very well. In 1945, she worked briefly as a foreign reporter. She wrote about cities in Europe that were damaged by the war. After the war, she lived in Paris and wrote for Harper's Bazaar magazine.
While living in Hawaii, Doris became the first non-Hawaiian woman to surf competitively. She was taught by the famous surfer and Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku. Doris loved animals, especially her dogs and pet camels. In her later years, she became a strong supporter of wildlife refuges.
Doris's interest in horticulture (gardening) led to a friendship with Louis Bromfield. He was a writer and farmer who won a Pulitzer Prize. He owned Malabar Farm in Lucas, Ohio. Today, his farm is part of Malabar Farm State Park. This was made possible by a donation from Doris. A part of the woods there is named after her.
When she was 46, Doris started creating Duke Gardens. This was a beautiful public garden with exotic plants. She built new greenhouses at her home in Duke Farms, New Jersey. Each of the eleven connected gardens was a full-size copy of a garden from a different country or time period. She got ideas from her many international travels. She also worked very hard on building them, sometimes for 16 hours a day. The gardens began to be built in 1958.
Doris learned to play the piano when she was young. She loved jazz music throughout her life and became friends with jazz musicians. She also enjoyed gospel music and sang in a gospel choir.
Doris collected a lot of art, especially Islamic art and Southeast Asian art. In 2014, some of her collection was shown at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Her collection is now on public display at her former home in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is now called the Museum of Islamic Art, Culture, & Design.
Doris Duke's Homes
Doris Duke owned several homes. Her main home was Duke Farms. This was her father's large 2,700-acre (11 km2) estate in Hillsborough Township, New Jersey. Here, she created Duke Gardens. It was a 60,000 sq ft (5,600 m2) indoor botanical display. It was one of the largest in America.
Doris's other homes were private during her lifetime. She spent summer weekends working on her Newport Restoration Foundation projects. She stayed at Rough Point, a large 49-room mansion she inherited in Newport, Rhode Island.
She spent winters at an estate she built in the 1930s. She named it "Shangri La" in Honolulu, Hawaii. She also owned "Falcon Lair" in Beverly Hills, California. This home used to belong to the famous actor Rudolph Valentino. Doris also had two apartments in Manhattan. One was a large penthouse with a big veranda. The other was an office near Times Square for her financial matters.
She bought her own Boeing 737 jet. She decorated the inside to look like a real house bedroom. She used it to travel between her homes and to collect art and plants. Doris found it hard to stay in one place for long.
Doris was a very involved homeowner. She would climb a tall ladder to clean tile murals at Shangri La. She also worked alongside her gardeners at Duke Farms.
Today, three of Doris's homes are open to the public in a limited way. Duke Farms in New Jersey is managed by the Duke Farms Foundation. You can watch a video tour of the former Duke Gardens. Rough Point was given to the Newport Restoration Foundation in 1999 and opened to the public in 2000. Shangri-La is run by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art. You can take small tours there or a virtual tour online.
Accident and Philanthropy
In 1966, an accident happened involving Doris Duke and Eduardo Tirella. He was the curator of her art collection. He decided to leave his job to work in Hollywood. He went to Newport to get his things and tell Doris. The staff at the estate heard them arguing loudly. Then they got into a car.
Doris said that Eduardo got out of the car to open the gate. She moved to the driver's seat to drive the car forward. She said she accidentally hit the gas pedal instead of the brake. The car hit Eduardo, the gates, and then a tree. Eduardo was found under the car and died from his injuries.
The Newport police investigated and said it was an accident. Eduardo's family later sued Doris for wrongful death. They won $75,000. This money was divided among Eduardo's eight siblings.
After this event, Doris Duke started giving a lot of money to the city of Newport. She helped fix the Newport Cliff Walk near her estate. She also gave $10,000 to the hospital where Eduardo was taken. Within months, she started the Newport Restoration Foundation. This foundation has since restored 84 old colonial buildings in the city.
Personal Life
Doris Duke was married two times. Her first marriage was in 1935 to James H. R. Cromwell. Doris used her money to help his political career. In 1940, he was the U.S. Ambassador to Canada for a few months. They had a daughter named Arden, who was born too early on July 11, 1940, and died the next day. Doris and James divorced in 1943. In 1988, Doris adopted a 32-year-old woman named Chandi Heffner.
On September 1, 1947, Doris married Porfirio Rubirosa in Paris. He was a diplomat from the Dominican Republic. Because of her great wealth, the U.S. State Department was concerned about her marriage to a foreign diplomat. They worried she might use her money for political reasons. Rubirosa had to sign an agreement before they married. During their marriage, she gave him millions of dollars in gifts. These included polo ponies, sports cars, and a house in Paris. Doris and Rubirosa divorced in October 1948. Doris never married again.
She was known to have many friendships and relationships. These included surfing pioneer Duke Kahanamoku and writer Louis Bromfield.
Doris also helped her friend, former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos. She paid $5,000,000 for her bail when she was arrested.
Later Years and Legacy
In 1992, at age 79, Doris Duke had a facelift. She fell and broke her hip while recovering. In 1993, she had knee surgery. She had a second knee surgery in July of that year.
A day after coming home from her second surgery, she had a severe stroke. Doris Duke died at her Falcon's Lair home on October 28, 1993, at age 80. She was cremated 24 hours after her death. Her ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean, as she wished.
Doris Duke's Fortune and Charity
When Doris's father died, he left a fortune worth $100 million. Doris and her mother received the largest share. Her mother, Nanaline, was a smart businesswoman. When she died in 1962, she left Doris an estate worth about $250 million.
Doris also owned many shares in big companies like General Motors. She had a large team of bankers and accountants to manage her money. Doris had a huge art collection. It included works by famous artists like Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and Monet. She also had a valuable collection of Islamic and Southeast Asian art and furniture. Her collection included over 2,000 bottles of rare wine and amazing jewels. Her total wealth was valued at $5.3 billion.
Doris's first major act of charity was starting Independent Aid, Inc., in 1934. She was 21 years old. This organization helped her manage the many requests for money she received. In 1958, she created the Duke Gardens Foundation. This was to support the public gardens she started at Duke Farms. Her foundation wanted Duke Gardens to show the Duke family's interests and their desire to help others. It also showed their appreciation for other cultures.
In 1963, Doris funded the building of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in India. This place later became famous when the Beatles studied there.
In 1968, Doris started the Newport Restoration Foundation. Its goal was to save more than eighty old colonial buildings in Newport. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, her friend, was the vice president and supported the foundation publicly. Doris was also friends with artist Andy Warhol. The foundation saved many historic properties. Seventy-one of these buildings are rented out. Only five are used as museums.
Doris's many travels made her interested in different cultures. She collected a lot of Islamic and Southeast Asian art. After her death, many pieces were given to The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the Walters Art Museum of Baltimore.
Doris did much more charity work. She was a big supporter of medical research and programs that help children. In the late 1980s, she gave $2 million to Duke University for HIV/AIDS research. Her foundation, Independent Aid, became the Doris Duke Foundation. It still gives grants today. After her death, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation was started in 1996. It supports four national grant programs and Doris Duke's three estates: Shangri La, Rough Point, and Duke Farms.
Her Will and Legacy
Doris Duke was the main beneficiary of two trusts created by her father. These trusts were set up in 1917 and 1924. The money from these trusts was meant for any children after her death. In 1988, at age 75, Doris legally adopted a woman named Chandi Heffner. Doris first believed that Chandi was the reincarnation of her biological child, Arden, who died shortly after birth in 1940.
However, the two women later had a disagreement. Doris's final will stated that she did not want Chandi Heffner to receive money from her father's trusts. She also canceled the adoption. Even with this, after Doris died, Chandi Heffner received $65 million after a lawsuit.
In her final will, Doris left almost all of her fortune to several existing and new charity foundations. She named her butler, Bernard Lafferty, as the person in charge of her estate.
There were several lawsuits filed against her will. When she died, Doris's fortune was estimated to be over $1.2 billion. The lawsuits were very complicated. Eventually, new people were appointed to manage her estate. These new trustees now control all the money of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Doris wanted this foundation to support medical research, preventing cruelty to children and animals, performing arts, wildlife, and nature.
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation also controls funding for the three separate foundations. These foundations operate Doris's former homes: the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Duke Farms, and Newport Restoration Foundation.
Images for kids
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Duke with then-husband James H. R. Cromwell, January 1940
See also
In Spanish: Doris Duke para niños
