Aug 20 2007
The Death of the Queen of Mean
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NEW YORK - Leona Helmsley, the cutthroat hotel magnate whose title as the “queen of mean” was sealed during a tax evasion case in which she was quoted as snarling “only little people pay taxes,” died Monday at age 87.
Helmsley died of heart failure at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn., said her publicist, Howard Rubenstein.
Already experienced in real estate before her marriage, Helmsley helped her husband Harry run a $5 billion empire that included managing the Empire State Building. She became a household name in 1989 when she was tried for tax evasion. The sensational trial included testimony from disgruntled employees who said she terrorized both the menial and the executive help at her homes and hotels.
That image of Helmsley as the “queen of mean” was sealed when a former housekeeper testified that she heard Helmsley say: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”
Okay, so she wasn’t the nicest of people, that’s a given. But she was still an ideal role model for women of all ages. Why? Because during a time when women were still considered chattel this woman made a name in the finance world. And unlike Ivana Trump, she didn’t do it with her husband’s name and power either, she did this on her own. You have to respect that about her. You may not love Leona Helmsley, hell not many did, but she had a brass pair.
