UPPERVILLE, Va. — Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, the deeply private and profoundly wealthy centenarian, has died at her estate in Virginia. She was 103.
Her longtime personal attorney Alexander Forger said from his office in New York City that Mellon died of natural causes Monday at her 4,000-acre horse farm in Upperville.
After spending most of her life trying to avoid the spotlight, she was thrust into it when Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards was indicted in 2011 for using what prosecutors alleged was campaign money, including $750,000 from Mellon, to hide his mistress Rielle Hunter and their child during his 2008 presidential bid.
Friends said Mellon should be remembered more for her contributions to the world of horticulture, art and fashion than the scandal that marked her last years.
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