A great benefactor of New York's cultural institutions died this afternoon. The New York Times has posted her obituary.

This city is an immeasurably better place because of her generosity. I thank her.

Brooke Astor's death, coming hard on the heels of the deaths of Nan Kempner and Pat Buckley, really brings a certain era to a close. The New York social/charity scene will go on, of course, but I doubt we will see again the kind of grand personalities who so dominated post-World War II/pre-millenium New York.

What an amazing woman she was!