27 Facts About Huguette Clark

Huguette Clark meticulously maintained Bellosguardo, a large familial estate in Santa Barbara, California, although she never returned to the property after the 1950s.

Huguette Clark spent much of her life outside of the public sphere, devoting her time to painting, the arts, and collecting various antiquities, primarily toys and dolls.

Huguette Marcelle Clark was born on June 9,1906, in Paris, France.

Huguette Clark was the second daughter of William A Clark, from his second wife, Anna E Clark.

Huguette Clark's father was a former US Senator from Montana and businessman involved in mining and railroads, who had largely amassed a fortune in copper mining operations in Butte, Montana and Jerome, Arizona.

Huguette Clark was a railroad magnate and one of the founders of Las Vegas.

Huguette Clark's mother, the daughter of French-Canadian immigrants, was born and raised in Michigan, and was an aspiring singer and musician.

Huguette Clark was raised Roman Catholic, the faith of her mother, while her father was a Protestant.

Huguette Clark spent her early life in France, living with her family at their apartment on Avenue Victor-Hugo in the 16th arrondissement.

In December 1927, Clark announced her engagement to law student William MacDonald Gower, a Princeton University graduate who was a son of one of her father's business associates, William B Gower.

Huguette Clark stipulated that the facility would be named the Andree Clark Bird Refuge, after her sister, who had died of meningitis.

Huguette Clark was a musician and painter, and in 1929 exhibited seven of her own paintings at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, located in Washington, DC She possessed an enthusiasm for the arts and was an avid collector of visual art, as well as antique toys and dolls.

Huguette Clark reportedly had a very small group of friends and was "skittish around strangers," spending much of her time in private, rarely leaving her residence.

Huguette Clark occasionally attended Christian Dior fashion shows in New York City, but only to find inspiration for clothing to dress her dolls.

Huguette Clark preferred to conduct all of her conversations in French so that others were unlikely to understand the discussion.

Huguette Clark paid a daily sum of $829 to stay in the hospital.

In February 2010, Huguette Clark became the subject of a series of reports by Bill Dedman, an investigative reporter for NBC News.

Huguette Clark determined in 2010 that she was in the care of a New York City hospital, and that some of her personal possessions had been quietly sold.

Huguette Clark died on May 24,2011, at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, two weeks short of her 105th birthday.

Huguette Clark had been moved a month earlier to an intensive-care unit and later to a room with hospice care; at the time of her death, Peri was by her side.

Huguette Clark's room was guarded and she was cared for by part-time private nurses.

Huguette Clark was entombed on the morning of May 26,2011, in the family mausoleum in section 85 of Woodlawn Cemetery, located in The Bronx, New York City, before the cemetery gates were open to the public.

Huguette Clark's attorney said she had specific instructions that no funeral service or Mass be held.

In 2008, Huguette Clark's representatives obtained consent from other Huguette Clark family members to alter the mausoleum originally commissioned by her father.

On September 24,2013, Huguette Clark's will was finally settled, with the majority of the distant relatives receiving a total sum of $34.5 million.

In March 2012, it was reported that shortly after Huguette Clark moved to a hospital in the early 1990s, a valuable pastel, Danseuse Faisant des Pointes, by Edgar Degas, was stolen from her Fifth Avenue apartment.

Under an October 2008 deed of gift, Huguette Clark agreed to donate the pastel, valued at $10 million, to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, of which Bloch was a major benefactor.