August 16, 2007
Challenges to Brooke Astor's Will
Brooke Astor's funeral service will be held tomorrow afternoon at Saint Thomas Church in Manhattan, but legal papers have already been filed contesting the doyenne of NYC philanthropy's will. Family and friends have been arguing about the legitimacy of Mrs. Astor's final will and testament for a while now, after major adjustments were made to the document in 2002 - a time when Astor was allegedly suffering from reduced competency - as well in the following years.
The New York Times reports that her court-appointed legal guardians, Annette de la Renta and JPMorgan Chase & Company, are petitioning for the courts to recognize a 1997 version of the will. De la Renta and the bank were appointed by the court following accusations that Astor's son had fraudulently benefitted himself as her estate's executor.
The bulk of Brooke Astor's estate is destined for the Metropolitan Museum and the New York Public Library, as details of her will leaked to The New York Times indicated earlier this year. The contested changes to the will involve large sums of money being transferred to her son by her first marriage, Anthony Marshall, who was accused by his own son of mistreating Mrs. Astor. Vincent Astor, the grandson of John Jacob Astor IV, was Brooke Astor's third husband.
Yesterday, the Times described the arrangements of Mrs. Astor's funeral scheduled for 2:30 pm tomorrow afternoon at Saint Thomas Church on 5th Ave. and 53rd St. Given the rancor and legal wrangling among family members and friends, it is possible that the pallbearers at the service will be U.S. Marines (Brooke Astor's father was the 16th Commandant of the Marine Corps).
The New York Post reports a rather strange detail - audio of the funeral service will be webcast from the church's online site, saintthomaschurch.org - while the Daily News wonders who is selling tickets to the funeral on Craigslist.
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brooke astor = mother teresa
It is interesting that the Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue web site's main page only mentions in passing in a paragraph about the book about them that they are an Episcopal church. They do mention Anglican a bit more obviously and to Episcopalians that can be a code word for non-progressives (i.e. parishes who want to recognize some third world bishop who thinks women priests are an abomination, hates gays, and tends to have other more "traditionalist" conservative views), however they do mention on another page they are "a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of New York" so they are still within the fold.
Wills turn people into animals. I just experienced it myself with my dad's wife. Plan now if you can, because you never really know.
Contest a will = greedy douchebag
#2 oh really? Cause I was raised an Episcopalian, actually my mom was one of the people who fought to let us have female priests, and our church was one of the first with one, and I never knew that that was what Anglican really meant...
Where do you get your information?
fraudulently benefitting oneself an an estate's executor + mistreating mother teresa = douchebag
Please, lawyers of New York, have at it over this douchebag's awful behavior (without depleting the estate too terribly).
BTW, St. Thomas is a fairly conservative parish as far as New York goes, but that by no means puts them in the wacko category of joining reactionary African breakaway bishoprics, i.e., some of the Virginian churches. It's my understanding that the gay community is well-represented at St. Thomas.
contesting wills = what do you expect them to do work (mope) for a living?
It's the Met and NYPL who expect to benefit. Are they mopes?
Re #5:
I take it you haven't heard of the Anglican Church in America, the Orthodox Anglican Church, or the Anglican Province in America. There are more and if you are an Episcopalian you should know that there has been a schism going on between some of the more traditionalists and the more progressives leading to parishes leaving and legal battles.
On the other hand, The Episcopal Church is the normal progressive one that has a woman, Katharine Jefferts Schori, as Presiding Bishop and has Gene Robinson, who is openly gay and living with his partner, as Bishop of New Hampshire. - both things that the aforementioned breakaway groups would have big problems with.