Montreal Daily Witness

Youngest Survivor Of The Titanic, Gleeful With Foster Parents
Monday 22 April 1912 

Boy, Eleven Months Old, Saved When Parents Went Down With Wreck, Becomes Centre Of Much Attention And Smiles Happily.

Although Travers J.[sic] Allison, eleven months old, did not realise it yesterday, much interest was centred in his case.

He is probably the most youthful survivor of the Titanic disaster. One would never think he had undergone such an experience to see him smiling and chuckling under the care of foster-parents at the Manhatten Hotel. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Hudson. J. Allison, of Montreal.

Mr. Hudson was a capitalist in that city and had various interests. When the Titanic went down the Allison's were on board with two other children,[sic]a chauffeur and a maid.

During the rush, and panic when lifeboats were lowered, the Allison baby was found on deck and taken aboard the second to last lifeboat that went over the ships sides. 

It is doubtful if another peson in the wrecked party recieved more care than he. He did not seem any worse for his experience yesterday and smiled heartily when his picture was taken. 

Back to first class passengers list.

Found here: Encyclopedia Titanica

07/26/06 July 26, 2006

Grandson Alleges Famed Socialite Is Being Abused
Brooke Astor, 104, Is Living in Squalor, Court Papers Say

NEW YORK (July 26) - She wears torn nightgowns and sleeps on a couch that smells of urine. Her bland diet includes pureed peas and oatmeal. Her dogs, once a source of comfort, are kept locked in a pantry. 

A court filing alleges that this is the life of 104-year-old Brooke Astor, the multimillionaire Manhattan socialite who dedicated much of her vast fortune to promoting culture and alleviating human misery.

Astor married into a family that at one time was among America's wealthiest and most prominent. Her late husband's father, John Jacob Astor 4th, died in the sinking of the Titanic; his grandmother, Caroline Astor, led New York society for 25 years during the Gilded Age of the late 19th century; and his great-great-grandfather, John Jacob Astor, became America's wealthiest man by 1840.

The court papers - filed last week and reported on Wednesday by the Daily News - blame the alleged misery and squalor inside Astor's Park Avenue duplex on her only child, Anthony Marshall, who controls her $45 million portfolio.

The accuser: Astor's grandson Philip Marshall.

He alleges in a sworn statement that his 82-year-old father "has turned a blind eye to her, intentionally and repeatedly ignoring her health, safety, personal and household needs, while enriching himself with millions of dollars."

The court papers - which were sealed on Wednesday - seek to remove Anthony Marshall as legal guardian and replace him with Annette de la Renta, the wife of Oscar de la Renta, and J.P. Morgan Chase bank.

A call to Anthony Marshall was not immediately returned. The former diplomat and Broadway producer declined to discuss the case with the Daily News, saying, "It is a matter that is going to be coming up in a court of law and it should be left to the court." A hearing was scheduled for Aug. 8.

Philip Marshall's allegations regarding his grandmother have the backing in sworn statements of such famous names as Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller, who both attended Astor's 100th birthday gala four years ago.

"This is a remarkable and extraordinary woman who has given so much to so many, and he wants to see that in her last days she's given what she needs," said Rockefeller spokesman Fraser Seitel. "She can afford it, and she deserves it." 

Astor ran the Astor Foundation after the death of her third husband, Vincent Astor, in 1959.

Brooke Astor gave millions to the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall and the Museum of Natural History. But she also funded smaller projects such as new windows for a nursing home and was noted for personally visiting the places she helped out.

"Money is like manure, it should be spread around," was her oft-quoted motto.

Astor has faded from sight in recent years amid declining health, including two broken hips. Once she was confined to her apartment, court papers allege, she was denied many of the staples of her high-society life.

Her son allegedly replaced her costly face creams with petroleum jelly. A French chef was fired, leaving her at the mercy of an "unmotivated cook" serving pureed peas, liver, carrots and oatmeal, court papers say.

Her dogs, Boysie and Girlsie, have been confined to a pantry for the last six months to keep them from damaging the apartment, the papers say. Philip Marshall also alleges that nurses had to use their own money to buy hair bonnets and no-skid socks for the elderly woman when requests for the items were denied.

"Her bedroom is so cold in the winter that my grandmother is forced to sleep in the TV room in torn nightgowns on a filthy couch that smells, probably from dog urine," Philip Marshall said in his affidavit.

AOL News

July 27, 2006
New York Times

A Potential Family Problem That Awaits
the Rich and the Poor Alike
By Sam Roberts

The allegations of neglect involving Brooke Astor, while unproven, are a reminder that the very rich are not that different in one respect: money can go only so far in protecting them from the adversities of old age.

Whether it takes the form of neglect, physical or emotional abuse, or financial exploitation, elder mistreatment is an emerging problem as the population ages, experts say. If the allegations are true, Mrs. Astor, who is 104, would fit the profile of the average victim: a woman, more often than not white, and among the oldest of the old. Indeed, advocates for the elderly said yesterday the accusations were an example of a problem that has been largely hidden, particularly when, as in this case, they involve another family member.

“This is one case I hope to use to focus attention on a national issue that we don’t like to think about or talk about in polite conversation,” said Representative Peter T. King, a Long Island Republican, who said he did not know the facts of Mrs. Astor’s care. He has sponsored legislation to address the fact that “elder abuse, neglect and exploitation have no boundaries, and cross all racial, social class, gender and geographic lines.”

The broad outlines of Mrs. Astor’s failing health and the concerns about her care suggest that neither money nor family can necessarily insulate the elderly from the vicissitudes of aging.

She lost control over her everyday affairs, faded from view and has been largely confined to her Park Avenue apartment for the last few years. There her care is overseen by her only child, Anthony Marshall, and her grandson Philip Marshall charges that her living conditions are bad enough to cause him to seek to have his father replaced as his grandmother’s guardian.

Lorraine V. K. Coyle, a Bronx lawyer who specializes in cases involving the elderly, said the allegations suggest that no one is secure from mistreatment. “It makes me tremble,” she said. “What does it mean for people who don’t have those assets?”

Richard J. Bonnie, director of the University of Virginia’s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy and the chairman of a National Academy of Sciences panel on elder abuse, said, “Whatever the motivation, one of the big problems of elder mistreatment is neglect.

He added that there was a danger “of everyday exploitation when people are not able to protect themselves and their own property.” Speaking generally, he said, “We’re looking at the worst side of human nature.”

Mrs. Astor, who married into money and then gave much of it away to good causes, never had to worry about her financial security once she got old.

“We gave a quarter of a million to the Animal Medical Center to care for pets of the elderly poor,” she recalled in an interview years ago. “It’s a wonderful place. When I’m sick, that’s where I want them to take me.”

Now, according to court papers, she has been deprived of the company of her own dogs, which have been confined to the pantry. Old and sick, she still lives at home, but apparently not in the style to which she had become accustomed as a society leader and philanthropist — the style, presumably, to which she intended to stay accustomed until she died.

In an affidavit, Philip Marshall says his father has skimped on medical care, cosmetics, clothing and other amenities for Mrs. Astor.

Anthony Marshall said he had no comment on the case when he was reached last night.

The consensus among people who study elder abuse is that one way or another, up to 5 percent of elderly people are mistreated. Some are victims of self-neglect.

“The greatest perpetrators of elder abuse are family members,” said Bob Blancato, national coordinator of the Elder Justice Coalition. “The rich and powerful are as helpless and vulnerable as anyone else.”

Professor Bonnie described abuse of the elderly as “a kind of hidden problem, in all the settings in which it occurs, maybe even more so than child abuse is.”

He pointed out that institutional care had come under greater scrutiny in recent years, but that mistreatment of the elderly in the home presented a problem since it was not within regulatory oversight. Even well-intentioned relatives may be preoccupied with other burdens or not skilled in recognizing problems, he said. “And nobody’s looking over their shoulders.”

Financial exploitation, he said, “is most likely to occur when you have a sizable estate when the temptation for self-dealing may be greater because they’re concerned that the assets are going to be lost and not inherited.”

Another expert, Dr. Gregory J. Paveza of the University of South Florida, said that often when family members have been selected as legal guardians, “the court’s oversight is cursory at best.” The guardian, he said, “has absolute control over your life.”

If Mrs. Astor had not planned sufficiently for her final years, she had for her death. After she gave the family home of her husband, Vincent Astor, in Rhinebeck, N.Y., to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York as a home for the aged, she decided to move his grave to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, which overlooks the Hudson in Westchester County.

“The grave is one down from Nelson Rockefeller’s,” she said in a 1984 interview. “I’m going to be buried there, and there’s plenty of room for Tony.”

July 27, 2006
The Associated Press 

Philanthropist Brooke Astor hospitalized

NEW YORK — Millionaire socialite Brooke Astor, whose well-being is at the center of a legal battle between her son and grandson, has been admitted to a hospital, where her condition is improving, her doctor said.

Dr. Sandra Gelbard, a specialist in internal medicine and critical care at Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital, told the Daily News in Thursday's editions that Astor's "condition has improved, and we are hopeful that she is going to go home in the very near future."

 Gelbard said the hospital would issue a statement on Thursday. Hospital officials did not immediately return calls Thursday seeking comment.

In court papers filed last week, Astor's grandson, Philip Marshall, accused his father of ignoring the 104-year-old woman's health and safety "while enriching himself with millions of dollars."

"Her bedroom is so cold in the winter that my grandmother is forced to sleep in the TV room in torn nightgowns on a filthy couch that smells, probably from dog urine," Philip Marshall said in an affidavit.

The court papers, first reported Wednesday by the Daily News, seek the removal of 82-year-old Anthony Marshall as his mother's legal guardian and to have him replaced with Annette de la Renta, the wife of Oscar de la Renta, and J.P. Morgan Chase bank.

David Richenthal, who produced three Broadway plays with Anthony Marshall, told The New York Times that the allegations were "the most fabricated bunch of nonsense I've ever read."

Richenthal said Astor's doctors had diagnosed Alzheimer's disease several years ago and her condition has declined. He said Marshall "spends a good deal of his energy taking beautiful care of his mother."

Astor ran the Astor Foundation after the death of her third husband, Vincent Astor, in 1959. He was the great-great-grandson of patriarch John Jacob Astor, who made a fortune in fur trading and real estate and was the wealthiest man in America by 1840.

Brooke Astor gave millions to the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall and the Museum of Natural History. But she also funded smaller projects, such as new windows for a nursing home.