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Mary Duke Biddle - Wikipedia

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Mary Lillian Duke Biddle

Born	Mary Lillian Duke (1887-11-16)November 16, 1887
Died	June 14, 1960(1960-06-14) (aged 72)
Spouse	Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Jr. (m. 1915; div. 1931)
Children	Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Nicholas Benjamin Duke Biddle
Parent(s)	Benjamin Newton Duke Sarah Pearson Angier
Relatives	Angier Buchanan Duke (brother)

Mary Lillian Duke Biddle (November 16, 1887 – June 14, 1960) was an American philanthropist.^[1]

Early life

She was born as Mary Lillian Duke on November 16, 1887, to Benjamin Newton Duke in Durham, North Carolina. She attended Durham's Trinity College, the institutional predecessor of Duke University, which was named in honor of her family. She graduated in 1907 with a degree in English.

She was a great enthusiast for the arts and traveled frequently with her family to New York City for the theater and opera, later becoming an accomplished singer and musician.^[2] In 1912 she was engaged to Prince Ludovic Pignatelli d'Aragon, an Italian nobleman, who tried to kill himself after the marriage was cancelled.^[3]^[4]

Around 1918, she was given her father's brick-and-limestone Beaux-Arts townhouse on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street. It was built in 1901 and is now known as the Benjamin N. Duke House.^[5] It is one of only nine surviving mansions on Fifth Avenue.

Marriage and later life

Her marriage to Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr. in 1915 ended in divorce in 1931. Their children were Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans and Nicholas Benjamin Duke Biddle.

She and her husband owned an estate, "Linden Court", in Tarrytown, New York, bought from the William R. Harris family in 1921. It still stands today as the Tarrytown House Estate and Conference Center.^[6]^[7]

She established the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation in 1956. Since then, the foundation has donated more than $28 million in grants to non-profit organizations.

The Foundation commissioned American composer Norman Dello Joio to write a piece for the Duke University Band and its conductor Paul Bryan titled Variants on a Medieval Tune based on the melody In dulci jubilo. It was first performed on April 10, 1963.

The Mary Duke Biddle Estate at Durham, North Carolina, was her home from 1935 until her death in 1960. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.^[8]^[9]

Notes

^ "A Washington Duke genealogy as it pertains to Duke University" Archived 2011-03-05 at the Wayback Machine - Duke University Libraries
^ "North Carolina School of the Arts Receives $100,000 Grant from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation to Endow Opera Scholarship" Archived 2006-09-06 at the Wayback Machine - Press release, February 4, 2002.
^ "Prince Pignatelli wins a $60,000,000 heiress". The Salt Lake Tribune. April 28, 1912.
^ "Distressing Progress of Prince Pignatelli's "Perfect Romance"". Richmond Times-Dispatch. September 30, 1917.
^ Kershaw, Sarah (January 9, 2011). "Big Deal - Sale of Duke Mansion Brings a Lawsuit". City Room. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
^ Tarrytown House property history
^ "History Center at Dolce Tarrytown House" Archived 2008-08-20 at the Wayback Machine, Half Moon Press newspaper, November, 2003 issue
^ Betsy Gohdes-Baten (February 2012). "Mary Duke Biddle Estate" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2014-10-01.
^ "National Register of Historic Places Listings". Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 1/07/13 through 1/11/13. National Park Service. 2013-01-18.

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