"Ferencz said, 'We had a butler who was fired. Duke left most of her money to charity and named her butler, Bernard Lafferty, co-executor of the estate. Daughter and only child of Tobacco tycoon James Buchanan Duke, Doris Duke was considered to be the 'worlds richest girl' when she inherited her fathers fortune in 1925 at the age of 12. 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However, within a few Heffner told me, "Doris used to call James 'Teach.' Heffner said that she had asked for them almost as a joke, and that Duke was laughing when the agent for the ownerrumored to be Adnan Khashoggi or a Kuwaiti sheikhcalled back and agreed. I never heard from Doris again and I could never reach her again. "No cane. 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During this period, Duke also plunged into three large-scale public projects. . Heffner, who lives on the Big Island of Hawaii on a ranch that Duke previously purchased for her, said in court papers that after their February 1991 breakup she learned that Duke had made changes in her will, and "the estate has not been left to Chandi as Doris had agreed." . Other people told me that Duke suspected Heffner of poisoning or drugging her, and that she credited Lafferty with saving her life. She also lent another $5 million to Marcos to cover her legal expenses (and asked for it back in her will). Her estate, said one family member yesterday, is valued at more than $1 billion. But her only child, a daughter, was born three months premature and died, according to reports at the time. She was a cool lady. In return, Heffner claims, the twice-divorced Duke promised to "take care" of Heffner for the rest of her life. "Doris did this more for the president. Keep in mind, people are entitled to a change of heart. According to a half-page biography released by Howard J. Rubenstein Associates, Bernard Lafferty was born in Ireland in 1945 and immigrated to the United States more than 20 years ago. Subscribe now for a trial offer of 3 issues for 1 plus free digital editions and home delivery. She had this terrible fear of fire." It was clear that something adverse was going on in the latter part of 1990 in Hawaii. Such was her wealth that when she married her second husband, Porfirio Rubirosa from the Dominican Republic, the US State Department insisted that a prenuptial agreement was signed to ensure that her money could not be used for a political agenda. ", In late 1990, he said, "I detected a growing unhappiness on Doris's part. Heffner takes credit for everything from improving the dairy herd at Duke Farms to arranging the sale of Duke's gold deposits in Switzerland. But by the following summer she was noticeably declining again. You're Arden. '" After testy negotiations with local authorities, she finally shipped the pieces to New Jersey and installed them in her indoor tennis court. Doris Duke, pictured here at Shangri La, was the only daughter of tobacco tycoon James Buchanan Duke. On an employment application Lafferty filled out for the Pavillion Agency in New York in September 1986, he said he had worked at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia from 1972 to 1983 and at the Sands Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City from 1983 to 1985. Bernard Lafferty recently lunched in Manhattan with William Luers, president of the Metropolitan Museum, which was left $10 million by Duke. In an April 1992 codicil, she replaced them with her nephew, Walker Inman Jr., and Bernard Lafferty, and in a March 1993 codicil she made Bernard Lafferty her sole executor. Heffner also said that as next of kin she would have requested an autopsy, but she was never officially notified of Duke's death, and by the time she learned of the cremation, it was too late. In 1925, at the age of 13, she inherited an estimated $100 million in trusts from her father, James Buchanan Duke, a coarse but brilliant self-made man who founded the American Tobacco Company and the Duke Power Company, and who endowed Trinity College in North Carolina with millions, reportedly on the condition it change its name to Duke University. Doris and I used to go fairly regularly to see the president in the hospital; she would give him reiki treatments.". Despite the negative publicity, she fought her husband in the courts for five years, until he gave in. Her former physician, Dr. Harry Demopoulos, is seeking to unseat Lafferty as co-executor. . "Not at all. This was the fifth time that Duke had rewritten or revised her will since Heffner's banishment 26 months earlier. He's a sweet human being, and he seemed to be honest and fiercely defensive of Doris. "Her legs were almost starting to atrophy from lack of exercise." Call your pilot tonight and leave immediately and go to Los Angeles and get checked up.' Inspired by this trip, they bought the most spectacular piece of property near Diamond Head in Honolulu, on which they built a Mogul-style fortress and named it Shangri La. . Ferencz Soltesz [the Peltzes' majordomo] told me he's an excellent butler so long as you keep him off the bottle. Keyko said that $800,000 was paid to Heffner on Friday. "I looked upon Bernard as a member of the small Doris Duke family," says Donald Robinson. One week later, Doris Duke stunned the world again by adopting Chandi Heffner at the Somerset County Court House in Somerville, to which the two women were accompanied by Donald Robinson. She was alarmingly fragile." He could barely speak.". ", "Doris wanted the things money couldn't buy. . Banks never saw her again. Jane Engelhard sat next to the bodyguard, and you should have seen her face. We were joking around, because we both had bad knees. "O.K., I'm not going to see her, but. . They were putting up a curtain rod together. "Doris was seeing a Japanese therapist for her knee problems . She told me that her parents did not approve of her lifestyle, and that they'd cut her off from everything. Alec Cunningham-Reid. He has an alcohol problem, but he's a basically good person. We would hear it, and we would just joke about it. . That evening, I sent up dinner and Chandi came downstairs and said, 'Tom, Bernard just dropped the entire tray.' I said, 'Doris, get out of that house. Slim, tall, even without standing on her father's tobacco millions, she loved men, sex, clothes, jewels and intrigue. ", In either March or April, Demopoulos said, he received a call from Irwin Bloom, who told him that he had been fired by Duke. "And later on, for a while, on Irwin Bloom, the financial manager. Surrogate Court Judge Wilfred P. Diana asked Duke if she understood that the adoption "creates a relationship between you and Miss Heffner as if she were born to you in wedlock," and Duke said yes. And so I decidedthe biggest mistake of my 41 yearsto give this son of a bitch a second chance . "She wasn't just one of those rich women who said, 'Restore me 60 houses.' In Newport, she loved going to the jazz festival, and then one would sometimes have dinner in that huge house with the ferocious dogs snarling behind the gates. I said, 'Sure, have him call me.' He also said he had worked on and off for Peggy Lee for 10 years. According to Heffner, Duke suffered heart palpitations in Moscow and was afraid to be alone, so for the rest of the trip they shared hotel rooms. Doris also worked as a war correspondent and later a writer in Paris for Harpers Bazaar. I suspected that it was Bernard doing thiskeeping the food cold. Phyllis Saretta told me that Duke performed with the Farrah company four or five times, wearing a long black wig. So we let him start, and we had problems with the alcohol and did our best to put him in a situation where he dried out. (After Duke's death, the trustees of her estate became defendants in this lawsuit.). . Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. It will be wonderful.' D oris Duke, her blue Siamese cat eyes sparkling, executes a remarkably fine hula at Shangri La, the authentic, Islamic-inspired riad she has painstakingly created on a promontory at Diamond Head, Honolulu. April 7, 1993 Chandi Duke Heffner, the 39-year-old former belly dancer and Hare Krishna devotee who was legally adopted by American Tobacco Co. heiress Doris While Duke was quite a philanthropist, she wasn't just giving money to the filthy rich Marcos. Duke amended her will to authorize her executors to recover all of the loans to Marcos once things settled down in the Philippines. [Pictured: Imelda Marcos, Doris Duke, and the 35-year-old woman she adopted. . ") "She looked great," Warnecke says. I was not aware of what management roles he might or might not have had. But she got up again, and we did our steps. He also said that she had lent $600,000 for his company, Health Maintenance Programs, Inc., in 1989; the loan is to be converted into stock, according to the will. Chandi, which means "female energy personified" in Sanskrit, was born Charlene Heffner in Baltimore on August 26, 1953, the eldest of three daughters of William Heffner, a lawyer, and his wife, "Bunny," a nurse. "Cromwell was quite nice," says Nelson Seabra, a rich Brazilian friend of Duke's. She grew up near Towson, an upper-middle-class suburb of Baltimore, and graduated from Notre Dame Prep, a private Catholic girls' school, in 1971.
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