Brooke Astor
Roberta Brooke Astor (née Russell; March 30, 1902 – August 13, 2007) was an American philanthropist, socialite, and writer. She served as the chairwoman of the Vincent Astor Foundation, established by her third husband, Vincent Astor, who was a member of the Astor family. Brooke Astor was the author of two novels and two volumes of personal memoirs. Early life Roberta Brooke Russell was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the only child of John Henry Russell Jr., the 16th Commandant of the Marine Corps, and Mabel Cecile Hornby Howard. Her paternal grandfather John Henry Russell Sr. was a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy. She was named for her maternal grandmother (Roberta) and was known as Bobby to close friends and family. Due to her father's career she spent much of her childhood abroad living in China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and other places. She briefly attended The Madeira School in 1919, but graduated from the Holton-Arms School. As a child she kept diaries, letters and drawings from her travels, which were published in an illustrated edition of her memoir "Patchwork Child: Early Memories" in 1993. Marriages John Dryden Kuser She married her first husband, John Dryden Kuser (1897–1964), shortly