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WILLFUL

Credit: MSNBC/Copper King Mansion Bed And Breakfast

Huguette Clark: A Lonely Life Lived In Luxury

By Elizabeth C.

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF COPPER HEIRESS HUGUETTE CLARK IS A DOOZY, leaving $34 million to her long-time nurse, $14 million to a god-daughter, and designating the bulk of her $400 fortune to establish an arts foundation at her 24-acre Santa Barbara, Calif. estate.

The reclusive 104-year-old, whose best friends were described as dolls, died last month after living the last 20 years cocooned inside hospitals. Her seven-page, filed Wednesday in Manhattan's Surrogate's Court, also leaves $500,000 apiece to her attorney and accountant, both under investigation since distant relatives filed suit last year seeking to oust them as her estate managers. Clark left not a penny to those relatives, whom she reportedly refused to see for years.

"I intentionally make no provision in this my Last Will and Testament for any members of my family, whether on my paternal or maternal side, having had minimal contacts with them over the years," Clark's will said. "The persons and institutions named herein as beneficiaries of my Estate are the true objects of my bounty."

A private agency nurse who was randomly assigned to care for Ms. Clark 20 years ago was willed a fortune. "I am profoundly sad at her passing, awed at the generosity she has shown me and my family, and eternally grateful," Hadassah Peri, 61, told the New York Post. She said she would "devote a substantial portion of this bequest toward making the world a better place for all people.”

Peri described Clark as a "kind and generous person, with whom I shared many wonderful moments and whom I loved very much." She has previously received at least four homes as gifts from Clark, according to MSNBC.

Clark's fortune derives from her father, William Andrews Clark, a rapacious Montana copper-mining mogul who served one term as a U.S. Senator. His wealth was bested only by the Rockefeller family fortune. "He is as rotten a human being as can be found anywhere under the flag," Mark Twain once wrote of the copper miner. "He is a shame to the American nation, and no one has helped to send him to the Senate who did not know that his proper place was the penitentiary, with a chain and ball on his legs."

In 1919, Huguette 's older sister Andree died of meningitis a week before her 17th birthday, according to the New York Post. Her Santa Barbara, Calif., mansion, bequeathed to house an arts foundation, is reportedly decorated with photos and paintings of Andree. "Paintings stayed on the walls, depicting her sister, Andrée, living well past her death at age 16, on into middle age," MSNBC reports.

Clark's estate also leaves a 1907 painting by Claude Monet to The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, which houses a wing named after her father. The painting, not seen since 1925, is believed worth up to $25 million.

An attorney for the relatives of Clark who filed suit last year had no comment. Last year her great half-nephew Ian C. Devine told MSNBC: The rest of the family would respect her [will]. But if she leaves it all to some sketchy cause that she has no close connection to, that would be of some concern."

Tags: Ephemera , News

Comments

Why, Why, Why can't I, as a registered nurse, find a wealthy benefactor like this woman? I need the money too

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