US News

‘QUEEN OF MEAN’ LEONA HELMSLEY DEAD AT 87.

Hotel and real estate empress Leona Helmsley died today at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn., her long-time publicist announced this morning.

She was 87 died of heart failure.

For nearly four decades the Helmsley name was synonymous with luxury-living as she developed a chain of landmark hotels in Manhattan like the Park Lane Hotel, the New York Helmsley Hotel, and the Helmsley Palace Hotel.

She became the public-face and “Queen” of Helmsley Hotels and a philanthropist who donated millions to local and international causes.

But during the 1980s, she also earned the moniker “Queen of Mean” for the harsh demands she placed on her staff and later an income tax evasion conviction that sent her to prison for 18 months.

Perhaps she will most be remembered for saying, “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”

Helmsley grew up in Brooklyn and started working in the real estate industry at a young age. She met the real estate tycoon Harry Helmsley in 1969 and was quickly appointed as his company senior vice president of residential sales. Although Harry was already married, he became romantically involved with Leona and the two wed in 1972.

She took an active role in managing the company — especially in the then-novel trend of converting buildings to condominiums.

After Harry died in 1997 she inherited an estimated $5 billion in holdings.

At her death, her business interests included the Empire State Building, the Lincoln Building, the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park South, the Helmsley Hotel on 42nd Street, and other holdings in New York and Florida.

“Leona was a great businesswoman in her own right who created a tremendous brand and success with Helmsley Hotels and was a wonderful partner and wife to Harry Helmsley,” said her spokesman, Howard Rubenstein. “She was extremely generous as a philanthropist and she gave tens of millions of dollars to charity right up until the last months of her life.”

She is survived by her brother, four grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.