Background
She was born on November 16, 1887 in Durham, North Carolina as Mary Lillian Duke to Benjamin Newton Duke.
She was born on November 16, 1887 in Durham, North Carolina as Mary Lillian Duke to Benjamin Newton Duke.
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.
In 1918 she was given her father"s brick-and-limestone Beaux-Arts townhouse on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, built in 1901. lieutenant is one of only nine surviving mansions on Fifth Avenue. Her marriage to Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle, Junior. in 1915 ended in divorce in 1931.
lieutenant still stands today as The Tarrytown House Estate and Conference Center.
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 Mary Duke Biddle Estate, her home from 1935 until her death in 1960, at Durham, North Carolina was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.