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You are here: Home / Writing / Doris Duke’s Death

Doris Duke’s Death

June 26th, 2014 by Sallie Bingham in Writing 8 Comments

From the series: Doris Duke

Find out more about my book, The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke, now available in paperback.

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Duke University Chapel

I’m sometimes surprised that the death of the woman whose vivid, exciting and controversial life I’m recreating in her first serious biography should seem more interesting to more people than her life.

After all, death is pretty much the same, for the great or assumed great or small of this world: suffering, loneliness, perhaps a spark of spiritual hope, and then what seems to be the final darkness.

Money doesn’t really influence the course of death’s events, especially in Doris Duke’s case, since she died at home at her house in Beverly Hills, Falcon’s Lair, a solitary flyer until the end.

I’m sometimes surprised that the death of the woman whose vivid, exciting and controversial life I’m recreating in her first serious biography should seem more interesting to more people than her life.

Well, not quite.

Her devoted companion, Bernard Lafferty, officially her butler, was with her, and from this fact flowed three years of legal disputation as the small inheritance—five million out of her estate, left to charity, of 1.2 billion—was wrested away from him in a suit that employed ten lawyers and ultimately cost more than 1 million.

The money, of course, was not the issue, either for Bernard in his devotion to Doris (see the great TV special, Bernard and Doris, with Susan Sarandon and Michael Fiennes) for the legal fighting around her estate.

Perhaps still innocent of the uses and misuses of power, Doris also left Bernard a seat on the board of the gigantic Duke Endowment, which would have meant his voice would be heard, his opinions weighed and accepted or discredited, in the lofty board room of the great.

He lost that position, too, as well as the bequest, and died three years after it was all over, at the age of 51.

Before that, on the anniversary of Doris’ death, he was seen on the beach in Hawaii below Sangri la, her magical house, throwing leis into the ocean at the site where he had sprinkled her ashes.

She had not chosen to be buried with her father, grandfather and uncle in the Memorial Chapel at the Duke University Chapel, the towering Gothic edifice most would dub, because of its size and grandeur, a cathedral.

Doris did not chose to be memorialized there in a marble tomb topped with her recumbent figure—perhaps in a dance class leotard?—as her male relatives were memorialized in twentieth century suits and ties.

Probably she didn’t really have the choice. To this day, there is only one small black and white photograph of Doris Duke on the sprawling campus of the university her father endowed and she gifted with millions of dollars through her will.

Does it matter?

Only to the degree that the removal of women from the history of our times matters.

But she did escape being incarcerated in one of those dreadful marble tombs, which of course have not insured that anyone remembers Doris’ grandfather, Washington Duke, his son, her father, James Buchanan Duke, or her generous haunted uncle, Ben.

Tombs never enshrine anything except their occupants’ sense of their own importance, and it seems to me that Doris was never sure of her own importance. For us women, that assurance is hard to come by.

But Bernard Lafferty—who cares where he is laid to rest? Who cares whether his memory is used to disparage Doris Duke?

“Didn’t she marry her butler?” the young man working in a modest sporting goods store in Newport, Rhode Island, site of Doris’ house, Rough Point, asked me casually.

It was the only thing he wanted to know. Nothing else about her life, or her death.

Why is it so hard for us to believe love that crosses racial, class or gender boundaries?

One of our clichés goes, “Differences attract.” But that seems to mean only differences in personality, or perhaps in height or looks.

All the prejudices that continue to restrict our freedom here, in a country that calls itself the greatest democracy in the world, may come down to the young man’s apparently innocuous question.

Change, on the personal as well as the cultural level, only comes when we accept that love, in fact, knows no restrictions.

More on Bernard after I read a selection of his papers…

Photo of the Duke University Chapel by Captain Kimo

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In Writing Hawaii Falcon’s Lair Bernard Lafferty Bernard and Doris Susan Sarandon Michael Fiennes Duke Endowment Duke University Chapel Washington Duke James Buchanan Duke

A long and fruitful career as a writer began in 1960 with the publication of Sallie Bingham's novel, After Such Knowledge. This was followed by 15 collections of short stories in addition to novels, memoirs and plays, as well as the 2020 biography The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke.

Her latest book, Taken by the Shawnee, is a work of historical fiction published by Turtle Point Press in June of 2024. Her previous memoir, Little Brother, was published by Sarabande Books in 2022. Her short story, "What I Learned From Fat Annie" won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize in 2023 and the story "How Daddy Lost His Ear," from her forthcoming short story collection How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (September 23, 2025), received second prize in the 2023 Sean O’Faolain Short Story Competition.

She is an active and involved feminist, working for women’s empowerment, who founded the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which gives grants to Kentucky artists and writers who are feminists, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University, and the Women’s Project and Productions in New York City. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sallie's complete biography is available here.

Comments

  1. James Voyles says

    June 26th, 2014 at 6:59 am

    You have already captivated my interest in your forthcoming biography. Your writings always arrest my attention from the first words. Your insights are unmatched and your whip-smart observations always go straight to the crux of the matter. Ms. Duke is indeed fortunate to have her story in such “touching hands.”

    Reply
  2. Mason McNulty on Facebook says

    June 26th, 2014 at 9:07 am

    Sounds like a great read.

    Reply
  3. Jane sauer says

    July 2nd, 2014 at 7:46 pm

    These few brief paragraphs about Doris Duke and her butler have peeked my interest in the book. Please hurry and complete it!

    Reply
  4. Brent Baker on Facebook says

    July 3rd, 2014 at 4:33 pm

    Only Sallie will tell the truth…look forward to a great read!

    Reply
  5. Thomas Lipscomb on Facebook says

    July 3rd, 2014 at 4:46 pm

    My landlady in Sniffen Court was a good friend of hers

    Reply
  6. Jen says

    June 20th, 2015 at 8:32 pm

    I first came to know of Doris Duke after reading the life of Barbara Hutton. Both women inherited great wealth at a young age however Ms. Hutton died near penniless. Will be interested in reading your book.

    Reply
  7. Carolyn Charlene Lewis on Facebook says

    June 21st, 2015 at 6:31 am

    So interesting, thanks for this post !!

    Reply
  8. Rick says

    September 22nd, 2018 at 2:11 am

    I knew Bernard Lafferty from when he worked for Peggy Lee through to his death. He was as gay as they come, there was no romance between he and Duke, if anything he had this strange obsession with her in that he wanted to BE Doris Duke. He was a crossdresser, he used to dress up for Duke, she found it riotously funny! She loaned him tacky jewellery to wear.

    Reply

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