Elaine Lorillard Dies
Socialite Elaine Lorillard, 93, died of an infection in a Newport, R.I., nursing home November 26th.
Lorillard is best remembered for inspiring jazz club owner George Wein to create the Newport Jazz Festival, the first such gathering in the U.S. and the model for hundreds of similar celebrations worldwide.
While visiting Wein’s club in 1953, Lorillard told him jazz might liven up the "terribly boring" social scene in the summer resort for the rich. Her husband, Louis, a tobacco heir, gave Wein a $20,000 line of credit to start the festival, which launched the following year with Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday.
Lorillard and Wein later clashed over who deserved credit and profits from the festival, and she sued in 1959. They reconciled in 1992.
