DIED IN A DINGY ROOM

Feilding Star, Volume 9, Issue 3678, 23 March 1932, Page 5

DIED IN A DINGY ROOM

WOMAN LEADER OF SOCIETY LAST YEARS AS RECLUSE lAUst and N.Z. Cable) New York, March 22. Airs Ida Wood, who was one of the leaders of New York- society half a* cfentury |igo, died from pieumoiiia in the dingy room near Broadway which she had occupied for the past 18 years. Pinned to her skirts and in. the mattress of her bed wei’e notes totalling £2-50.000. Widow of •Benjamin Wood, first owner of the powerful New York Daily News,’* Airs Wood selumn ventured from lifer rooms. She had a standing order for a boiled egg for dinner which she topped off with a black cigar. In the drab room were found 40 trunks, containing treasures of tlie olden days—laces, antique shawls, and ballroom gowns of tlie period when All's "Wood danced with King Edward (then, tlie Prince of Wales). During the panic of 19()7 Airs. Wood drew all her money from the banks and boasted that she toured Europe with £125,000 c urrency wrapped in a paper bag. Airs Wood, as Ida Mayfield, came to New York from New Orleans in the ’fifties, and for years her great beauty and personality ruled New York’s social life. On e of the traditions of the city in the ’seventies was All's A\ cod’s afternoon carriage trip up Fifth Avenue precisely at 4 o'clock to meet her husband. w.r: