:For the singer, see Doris Duke Doris Duke (November 22, 1912 ? October 28, 1993) was an American heiress and philanthropist. Early Life Born in New York City, Doris Duke was the only child of tobacco and electric energy tycoon, James Buchanan Duke and his second wife, Southern aristocrat, Nanaline Holt Inman. Her father, a major benefactor of the Duke University, named for his father, died in 1925. His will left approximately half of his huge estate to The Duke Endowment with the remainder, estimated at $100 million (about $1 billion in 2005 dollars), to Doris. Duke was raised in a Horace Trumbauer designed townhouse at the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 78th Street by her widowed mother. She was daily driven to a private school in a chauffeured limousine and the staff of maids that cared for her maintained photograph books of all her clothing to plan and coordinate her wardrobe.