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Laura Jane Barney (born 1927) is an American socialite, collector and philanthropist. She sits on the board of the SmithBarney division of Citigroup and the Frick Museum. She is a patron of the arts and supporter of various charitable causes both in the United States and abroad. Her family is a benefactor of the New York Ballet, the Newport Mansion Conservation Fund, The Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir Initiative and the New York Public Library Restoration Fund. A wing of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art bears her name as well as do three charitable foundations (her late husband's, her father's and her own).
Born in 1927 in New York, Laura Jane "Bootsy" Belmont, divided time with her family between their sprawling 960 Fifth Avenue apartment and their landmark estates in the exclusive Belle Haven community of Greenwich, Connecticut and Newport, Rhode Island. An only child, both her parents were from prestigious American families. The Belmonts especially are remembered for their connection in business with the Vanderbilts in banking and railroads.
During the winter debutante season she was named a debutante of the year at the age of eighteen. She went on to attend Miss Porter's Boarding school in Farmington, Connecticut and Barnard College of Columbia University in New York.
Her marriage to William Barney of the Smith-Barney banking fortune produced four children. Currently she divides her time between her family estates in Greenwich, Connecticut and Newport, Rhode Island and her late husband's family beachfront mansion and yacht in Palm Beach, Florida.
<<<Researching the house she supposedly lived in at Newport - the person who supposedly sold it to her, had never heard of her. There is no Laura Barney Charitable Foundation, there is no Laura Barney wing at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art nor is her name attached to the Frick, and the article lacks any name that would clearly link her to the "prestigious American families" she is supposedly from. Of the three books sited as references for this article, the first two have no mention of anyone by the name of 'Barney' or 'Bootsy'; and, the book by "Marcus Rossalstein" does not seem to exist except for its mention in this article. Unless a proper source can be found for anything mentioned herein, this article should be deleted.>>>
Sources
Young, Ryan A. Newport Revisited: Images of America
Preston, Claire. Edith Wharton's Social Register
Rossalstein, Marcus. Glitz, Glamour and Guts, The True Story of the Manhattan 400??
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