Millionairess Huguette (pronounced "HYOO-gett") Marcelle Clark | Source: NY Daily News

And now, another tale of the profoundly weird.

Doubtless some of you may be aware of the recent passing a month ago of one Huguette Clark, the reclusive 104-year-old heiress to a copper mining fortune, and daughter of the one-time second richest man in the United States, who also, incidentally, bought himself a U.S. Senate seat in the state of Montana in 1899?

What has this random historical minutiae got anything to do with Manhattan Beach or Sheepshead Bay, you may be asking. Six degrees, my intrepid friends.

Turns out, the reclusive widow, who spent her remaining years being waited upon hand and foot by staffers at Manhattan’s Beth Israel Medical Center, has bequeathed $33 million of her $400 million fortune to one extremely lucky gal Filipino nurse Hadassah Peri of Manhattan Beach, who, it is reported, also received $2 million from Clark at an earlier date to buy “a $700,000 house in Sheepshead Bay.”

From The Daily News:

Clark, who died May 24 at Beth Israel Medical Center at the age of 104, also left $500,000 each to her lawyer, Wallace (Wally) Bock, 79, and her accountant, Irving Kamsler, 64, a convicted sex offender. The Manhattan district attorney’s office is investigating Bock and Kamsler for possibly mishandling her riches.

“I intentionally make no provision in this, my Last Will and Testament, for any members of my family, whether on my paternal or maternal side, having had minimal contacts with them over the years,” Clark wrote in her will filed yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Clark’s will was executed in April 2005, when she was 98 and purportedly of sound mind.

The closest person to a relative to benefit from Clark’s last wishes was goddaughter Wanda Styka, who was bequeathed $12 million after taxes.

But nurse Hadassah Peri, who had been randomly assigned in 1991 by an agency to take care of Clark, was the most bountiful beneficiary.

“I was her private duty nurse, but also her close friend,” Peri, 60, an immigrant of the Philippines and a married mother of three, said through a spokesman.

“I knew her as a kind and generous person with whom I shared many wonderful moments and whom I love very much,” added Peri, who saw Clark every day for 20 years. “I am profoundly sad at her passing, awed at the generosity she has shown me and my family.”

Peri of Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, whom Clark already gave $2 million to buy four homes, also received the millionairess’ extensive collection of French and Japanese dolls.

I need to ingratiate myself to this Peri woman, and fast! Now, where dat $700,000 house at?

Sheepshead Bites staffers – and especially its editor and publisher – are on a constant search for a sugar mama. Please send all applications to nberke [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com. Resumes not necessary. Bank statements are, though.

 

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  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

    There’s always an angle you two are working. My, what a sad state the field of journalism has come to.

    OK, I want in too.

    • http://www.facebook.com/pages/Erica-Sherman-Photographer/156144554406226?ref=mf ES

      We’ve got to make our millions somehow.

      • Anonymous

        ES and Lisanne – I thought you were our sugar mammas!

        • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

          We can barely afford to buy sugar.

  • Arturotedesco

    Wow. Going back to school for a career in nursing never sounded so good!

  • Barkingspider7

    You guys are all crazy!

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      You just noticed that now? We’ve always been crazy.

      But I thought you were just as crazy as we are.

      • Barkingspider7

        GUILTY AS CHARGED!

  • Local Broker

    Note to self. Amazing things happen when your nice to people.  

  • http://www.facebook.com/pages/Erica-Sherman-Photographer/156144554406226?ref=mf ES

    Btw, Ned, we do not discriminate based on gender, do we? Because I am totally cool with having a sugar daddy, but I don’t know how conformable that would make you feel…to you know? To be a boy toy?

    • http://www.nedberke.com Ned Berke

      I guess it all depends… how many millions we talkin’ about? 

      • http://www.facebook.com/pages/Erica-Sherman-Photographer/156144554406226?ref=mf ES

        I said “conformable” — I meant “comfortable.” Bejus. And really, does “how many millions” matter? I’d be cool with a cool one mil.

        • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

          Lots of people have a million, it’s hardly anything these days. People who have just a million live in ratty houses that don’t even have downstairs bowling alleys and planetariums on the roof. Gotta think big. $30 million isn’t that bad, but $300 million is better.

        • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

          Lots of people have a million, it’s hardly anything these days. People who have just a million live in ratty houses that don’t even have downstairs bowling alleys and planetariums on the roof. Gotta think big. $30 million isn’t that bad, but $300 million is better.

      • Anonymous

        I’m with you Ned

        • Barkingspider7

          You and Ned are cheap and easy!  LOL

  • Anonymous

    That’s a man, baby!!!

    Look at that broad, it’s hardly a broad!

  • Anonymous

    That’s a man, baby!!!

    Look at that broad, it’s hardly a broad!

    • Guest

      That’s just makeup :)

    • Barkingspider7

      That is the way women looked back then – they never smiled.  I have pics of my grandmother and grandfather looking fugly like that!

    • Eminem

      Come on, didn’t you have a thing for Miss Crabtree (or Miss Magillicuddy) like the rest of us?

      • Cabbie

        i think i saw her in a laurel and hardy movie.

        and yes, miss crabtree gave me my first baby chubby.

  • Anonymous

    What a disappointing article!  When I read “Manhattan Beach resident,” I was hoping that person would have been me.

  • Sueyellin

    TOO LATE WE HAVE FIRST DIBBS ON HER.WE’VE ALREADY ASKED HER TO BE ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS,DEDICATE A MONUMENT(ANY MONUMENT) AND KISS A FEW BABYS..

    SUE

  • rodrigo212

    very interesting story…family drama and history. Besides not being a part of her life…I wonder what happened for her not to pass on her fortunes to her blood family? Any how, good for the nurse and the granddaughter! Thanks for sharing this story…Sheepshead Bites.

    • rodrigo212

      actually it was her God-Daughter…not granddaughter….not even a blood relative!

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      She was a recluse. She had little contact with her family. What little interactions did transpire intermediaries handled. The most recent were changes made to the family vault,

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