This Is So Sad ...

Post by **jones jones** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:35 am

..yet so intriguing that I just have to find out more!

Reclusive American heiress Huguette Clark died last year, just a few days shy of her 105th birthday. She was born in Edwardian Paris, the daughter of Senator William A. Clark, a copper mining tycoon once the second-richest man in the United States (after Rockefeller, of course).

A socialite party girl in her younger days, she became a recluse after a brief marriage to the son of one of her father’s business associates. This photograph, taken on August 11th, 1930, the day her divorce became final, is the last known taken of her.

She refused to be photographed and, according to The New York Times, spent nearly quarter of a century at a Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan, alone except for her growing doll collection, playing the harp, eating sardines, and watching Flintstones cartoons. (AFP)

Madame Clark, as she liked to be called, left behind three magnificent multi-million-dollar estates - one in Santa Barbara on a bluff overlooking the Pacific, a castle in the Connecticut countryside, and a 42-room apartment on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan where her epic collection of antique French dolls, her only companions, were kept.

The houses have all been well maintained over the years, even though their owner hadn’t set foot in them for decades. The last 22 years of her life were spent living in a hospital room in New York under an assumed name, “Harriet Chase.” She was buried at the family mausoleum in the Bronx, with only the funeral home employees to say goodbye.

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Post by **jones jones** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:36 am

Post by **jones jones** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:38 am

Huguette Clark with one of her dolls around 1910. "Her closest companions have always been her dolls," said her friend Suzanne Pierre

Post by **jones jones** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:40 am

Bellosguardo, the Clark family estate in Santa Barbara, Calif. Huguette Clark hasn't visited since the 1950s.

Post by **jones jones** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:41 am

Le Beau Château, the Clark estate in New Canaan, Conn. Huguette bought it in 1952, and never spent a night.

Post by **jones jones** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:43 am

Huguette Clark has had the top floor, the 12th, in this apartment building at 907 Fifth Avenue in New York City, and all the eighth floor. In all, that's 42 rooms. She had]n't been seen here in about 22 years.

tabby · Post by **tabby** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:15 am

I can't remember the details because I mostly just scanned the headlines but I believe there have been recent court proceedings concerning Huguette Clark's estate. Maybe she left her entire estate to her nurse? I can't remember but it definitely had something to do with someone being on the receiving end of her well wishes and other people trying to challenge it.

Snooz · Post by **Snooz** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 11:44 am

It could have been a whole lot worse. Being a rich agoraphobic hermit is better than being a poor one.

AnneBoleyn · Post by **AnneBoleyn** » Sun Feb 05, 2012 2:37 pm

Having such a person living such a life can easily turn me into a communist. I wonder what her tax rate was. Selfish crazy bitch could have helped so many people. Inherited wealth of this type is not a good thing. What is sad to me is the waste of resources that could have served others well. I'm sorry, JJ, but phooey on this dame & her dolls.

tabby · Post by **tabby** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 5:51 pm

Here's an update: Open Channel - Heiress Huguette Clark's apartments hit the market, listed at $55 million