Ann Getty in her San Francisco home, 1977
Horst P. Horst / Conde Nast via Getty Images
Ann Getty was as beautiful as she was philanthropic. Tall, at a statuesque 5ft 9, she was a devoted benefactor of the arts – and did not allow her legacy to be dictated by the man she married nor the wealth she married into. A sharp, California farm girl, she grew up driving tractors on her father’s peach and walnut farm before marrying the composer Gordon Getty, the fourth son of oil baron J Paul Getty, then the richest man in the world.
Ann, who became a globe-trotting publisher, author, interior designer and philanthropist, died in September, aged 79. Although she lived a ritzy life, adorned with extravagances like a private Boeing 727 (that the…
