Mary Fairfax inherited most of his vast fortune upon his death in January 1987, becoming one of Australia's richest women.
14 Facts About Mary Fairfax
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Mary Fairfax came to Australia with her parents in the late 1920s to escape European anti-Semitism.
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Mary Fairfax attended the Presbyterian Ladies' College in Sydney, where she won prizes for history and chemistry.
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Mary Fairfax eventually came to own several Sydney dress shops.
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Mary Fairfax began having an affair with Warwick Oswald Fairfax, a scion of the Fairfax family, in the late 1950s.
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Mary Fairfax divorced her husband in 1958 and married Fairfax on 4 July 1959, the day after he divorced his second wife.
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Mary Fairfax converted from Judaism to Catholicism before the wedding.
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Mary Fairfax sold the apartment in 1999 to financier Martin Zweig for $21.5 million and returned to Australia.
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Lady Mary Fairfax died of natural causes at her family home on 17 September 2017.
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Lady Mary Fairfax was a chairman, founder and president of the Friends of The Australian Ballet and was the president of the Australian Opera Foundation during the 1970s.
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Mary Fairfax's philanthropy included gifts of 750,000 to St Vincent's Foundation and 250,000 to the Garvan Foundation in 2002 on the occasion of her eightieth birthday.
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Mary Fairfax's assets included the residential land development, Harrington Park, near Camden, New South Wales.
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In recognition of her service to the community, Mary Fairfax was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1976.
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Mary Fairfax was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 1988, and upgraded to Companion of the Order of Australia in 2005, for "service to the community of wide ranging social and economic benefit through support and philanthropy for ongoing medical research initiatives, improved health care opportunities, nurturing artistic talent in young performers, and preservation of diverse cultural heritage".