The Queen of Mean passes...

[headscratcher4]

Ok, Helmsley wasn't the most warm and fuzzy person...but she did go to jail and paid her debt to society. Now, she's dead and I'm listening to the reports on the TV news. It is all "Queen of Mean" and outrage that she left $12 million for the care and upkeep of her pet, $5 million to two Grandchildren (so long as they visit their father's grave once a year...) and ZIP to two other grandchildren (for reasons "known to them...").

BUT she left the bulk of her nearly or over billion dollar estate to a charitable foundation! Hardly any mention of the foundation, how it uses the money...what good works it supports, etc. Just that the dog got money and the grand kids didn't. Maybe the grand kids didn't deserve the money. They didn't earn it after all...maybe it is better for their charachters to earn their own living (or marry rich like Granny).

Anyway, I don't have much to say about Ms. Helmsley one way or the other...but I appreciate that she left the vast majority of her money to charity (where the dog's money will go when he is no longer with us)...and that doesn't seem so mean.

[Goshawk]

One of the things the Leona and Harry Helmsley Trust supported: 25 large for a hospital. (http://www.nypost.com/seven/10032006/news/regionalnews/helmsley_gift_to_hosp__25m_regionalnews_.htm)

October 3, 2006 -- NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital announced yesterday that it had received $25 million from the Leona and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

The money is to help set up a center for colon and rectal surgery and a high-tech surgical suite in a new facility for advanced therapeutic services.

Board Chairman John Mack said the gift would "have an enormously positive effect on our ability to provide the best in health care."

Over the years, Leona Helmsley and her husband, who died in 1997, have given some $70 million in support of the hospital and its academic affiliate, Weill Cornell Medical College.

Also found this: (http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2881398.ece)

She gave $25m to New York's Presbyterian Hospital; handed $5m to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and another $5m to help the families of those who died in the 11 September attacks on New York.

Her generosity knew few bounds and New Yorkers watched in some admiration as she lavished money on rebuilding black churches burned by arsonists in the American South. As if her name were not already burnished on enough buildings, it was added to New York's Medical Centre and Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut, among others, as soon as they had cashed the cheques she had generously donated.