Leona Helmsley, the haughty, tantrum-throwing real estate billionairess, became tabloid fodder for her lavish excesses, tax evasion schemes and legendary cruelty to her hotel empire's underlings.
But behind headlines like People magazine's "Greedy, Greedy, Greedy," the woman dubbed "the Queen of Mean" was a lovingly devoted wife to her third husband and a generous philanthropist who donated millions to hospitals, Hurricane Katrina victims and the children of firefighters killed on 9/11.
Ms. Helmsley, 87, died yesterday of heart failure at her Greenwich, Conn., mansion leaving behind a fortune estimated by Forbes this year to be worth US$2.5-billion and a legacy of legendary cheapness.
She once famously told her maid "only little people pay taxes," was forced to hand over a $550,000 settlement to a hotel manager she fired for being gay and sued her only son's estate for the $7,000 cost of flying his casket to New York for the funeral when he died in his forties of a heart attack.
In 2003, a poll commissioned by her lawyers found Ms. Helmsley to be the most hated public figure in New York - a legacy largely stemming from a 1989 trial where she was convicted of evading more than US$1.2-million in taxes by charging personal items to her business empire, from an $8 girdle to renovations on the Jacobean-style mansion where she died yesterday.
Ms. Helmsley paid a US$7-million fine and served 18 months of a four-year prison term before being released and having her servants complete much of the community service portion of her sentence.
Her own lawyer once famously referred to her as a "tough bitch."
Former New York City mayor Ed Koch once called her "a wicked witch," while Donald Trump wrote her husband to berate her as a "disgrace to the human race."
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But behind headlines like People magazine's "Greedy, Greedy, Greedy," the woman dubbed "the Queen of Mean" was a lovingly devoted wife to her third husband and a generous philanthropist who donated millions to hospitals, Hurricane Katrina victims and the children of firefighters killed on 9/11.
Ms. Helmsley, 87, died yesterday of heart failure at her Greenwich, Conn., mansion leaving behind a fortune estimated by Forbes this year to be worth US$2.5-billion and a legacy of legendary cheapness.
She once famously told her maid "only little people pay taxes," was forced to hand over a $550,000 settlement to a hotel manager she fired for being gay and sued her only son's estate for the $7,000 cost of flying his casket to New York for the funeral when he died in his forties of a heart attack.
In 2003, a poll commissioned by her lawyers found Ms. Helmsley to be the most hated public figure in New York - a legacy largely stemming from a 1989 trial where she was convicted of evading more than US$1.2-million in taxes by charging personal items to her business empire, from an $8 girdle to renovations on the Jacobean-style mansion where she died yesterday.
Ms. Helmsley paid a US$7-million fine and served 18 months of a four-year prison term before being released and having her servants complete much of the community service portion of her sentence.
Her own lawyer once famously referred to her as a "tough bitch."
Former New York City mayor Ed Koch once called her "a wicked witch," while Donald Trump wrote her husband to berate her as a "disgrace to the human race."
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
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