Brooke Astor, one of New York high society’s greatest ladies, famed for her philanthropist projects, passed away Monday at the age of 105.

Born Roberta Brooke Russell in March 1902, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, she was the only child of a Marine officer. She spent her childhood throughout places where her father’s work took him, in China, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Hawaii.

She was first married at 17, a union that would last 11 terrible years, according to her own accounts of it, and give her her only child, Anthony Marshall, now in his eighties.

She married once more in 1932. Her second marriage was a very happy one. as she herself wrote in her autobiographies, and ended with the death of her husband, in 1952, from a heart attack.

Brooke’s third and last marriage was to Vincent Astor, son of millionaire businessman John Jacob Astor, who was on board the Titanic when it sank. After five years of matrimony, Vincent Astor died of a heart attack. By now, Brooke was 57.

Upon her husband’s death, she received $2 million and the interest from $60 million, about half of Vincent Astor’s estate. The Vincent Astor Foundation received the other half.

Brooke Astor took charge of the foundation’s philanthropist activities and by the 1990s, it had given away nearly $200 million to various projects and organizations in New York. Brooke Astor was renowned for the great care with which she did her charity work, personally inspecting each project.

Among beneficiaries of the Vincent Astor Foundation were the New York Public Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, Carnegie Hall and Central Park.

Her son’s lawyer, Kenneth Warner, announced Brooke Astor’s death Monday. She died at Holly Hill, her country estate in New York, where she had spent the last several months.

Her last year was marred by a controversial dispute within the family. Grandson Philip Marshall, Anthony Marshall’s son, accused his father of neglecting Brooke Astor and failing to accommodate her needs.

Annette de la Renta was subsequently named Brooke’s guardian.