The billionaire believed that Chandi was the reincarnation of her dead kid. How could they forgive him, an uneducated Irishman who carried out his duties barefoot, topped with full butler's regalia, ear stud and ponytail? Other people told me that Duke suspected Heffner of poisoning or drugging her, and that she credited Lafferty with saving her life. No wills! It's not true. ", "Doris wanted the things money couldn't buy. Duke was close friends with former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and in 1968, when Duke created the Newport Restoration Foundation, Kennedy Onassis was appointed the vice president and championed the foundation. Let them kill each other over it.' He was the legendary Latin lover Porfirio Rubirosa, the former son-in-law of the Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. "We concentrated on her leg-muscle group," he said. (After Duke's death, the trustees of her estate became defendants in this lawsuit.). Contact Chandi, search articles and Tweets, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place. I've talked to bankers who said she knew where every last nickel was. Two years later she bought Falcon's Lair, the Beverly Hills house where Rudolph Valentino once lived. Demopolous argued that Lafferty and his lawyers had cajoled a sick, sedated old woman into giving him control of her estate. And, like Heffner, after following Duke from Duke Farms to Rough Point to Falcon's Lair to Shangri La for more than six years he was suddenly given a few hours to pack his bags and leave. Demopoulos said that Duke had mentioned her suspicions that she was being poisoned. Her philanthropic work in AIDS research, medicine, and child welfare continued into her old age. "He was marvelous," says Claus von Blow, who later became Duke's neighbor in Newport. Ms. Heffner also strives to encourage the continued production of handicrafts, and ensures that there is a market for them by purchasing these products from their makers. It was perhaps her last romantic affair, and in some respects foreshadowed her relationship with Chandi Heffner. Nor was she a crazy eccentric. [47], She reportedly had numerous love affairs, with, among others, surfing pioneer Duke Kahanamoku, film actor Errol Flynn, British politician Alec Cunningham-Reid, U.S. Army General George S. Patton, jazz pianist Joe Castro and U.S. writer Louis Bromfield. Her first husband, James R. Cromwell, called Duke "my frigidheiress" and engaged in a lengthy court battle to win a financial settlement. Cary W. Goldstein, Burns' lawyer, says Heffner Duke broke ``a very explicit deal she had with Burns, although it was never written down. He spent many weekends at a guesthouse at Duke Farms and was her escort when she went into the city for lunches and dinners with friends such as Diana Vreeland, Nan Kempner, and Kenneth Jay Lane. It was a really loving daughter-mother relationship. Ron Protas told me that in February or March of last year Duke agreed to guarantee a loan of $1 million for the Martha Graham Dance School. Under Chandi Heffner's leadership, CDHIF provides funding and support to a number of animal programs that benefit work . How to avoid leaving money on the table. ", By the time Duke returned to Shangri La that fall, she and Heffner were getting together on an almost daily basis, and when it was time to move back to Duke Farms in the spring of 1985, she invited Heffner to go with her.

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