Mary Duke Biddle

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Mary Lillian Duke Biddle (November 16, 1887 - June 14, 1960)[1], was an American philanthropist. She was born on November 16, 1887 in Durham, North Carolina as Mary Lillian Duke to Benjamin Newton Duke. She attended Durham's Trinity College, the institutional predecessor of Duke University, which was named in honor of her family. She graduated in 1907 with a degree in English. She was a great enthusiast for the arts and traveled frequently with her family to New York City for the theater and opera, later becoming an accomplished singer and musician. In 1918 she was given her father's brick-and-limestone Beaux-Arts townhouse on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, built in 1901; it is one of only nine surviving mansions on Fifth Avenue.