Jean Stein Was Worth $38M When She Plunged To Death From Manhattan Building
Image by Twitter/@AladejanaDeji
By Talya Zax May 15, 2017
Jean Stein, the Upper East Side oral historian who recently jumped to her death at 83 years old, was worth $38.5 million, the New York Post has reported.
The Post found details of Stein’s holdings in court papers. Her assets included her $10 million co-op apartment on the Upper East Side, $13.5 million in security investments, and $15 million worth of personal property.
Stein’s 25-page will notably includes bequeathments to Diane Keaton — “my pair of French mirrors in the shape of butterflies that belonged to Truman Capote” — and the New York Public Library, which will receive her correspondence with William Faulkner, with whom she once had an affair.
Stein, whose father, Jules Stein, founded the Music Corporation of America, wrote acclaimed oral histories of Robert F. Kennedy, Edie Sedgwick and Hollywood. Twice married and twice divorced, she is survived by her daughters Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, and actor-producer Wendy vanden Heuvel, as well as their children.
The majority of Stein’s wealth will be donated to the JKW Foundation, a cultural charity she founded.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
