11. Marjorie Merriweather Post was a philanthropist of longstanding renown
Although Marjorie Merriweather Post obviously spent millions in pursuit of her own pleasure and luxury, she also gave millions away. During the First World War, she donated the money for a field hospital in France. The grateful French awarded her the rank of Commander of the Legion of Honor, a rare award for a woman at the time. She financed and personally supervised a soup kitchen and shelter in New York during the Depression, operated by the Salvation Army. She gave money and land to the Boy Scouts of America, Long Island University, and the National Cultural Center in Washington DC. It later became the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
In 1944, she offered Mar a Lago to the military for use as a facility for injured veterans requiring therapeutic care and occupational therapy. Buildings on the estate were equipped as workshops, repair shops, and studios. Veterans received training in printing, carpentry, concrete work, gardening, mechanical repairs, heating systems, and other skills allowing them to transition to civilian life. The estate’s rooms housed treatment facilities for those suffering from post-traumatic shock disorder, though it was not yet known by that name. Others learned how to manipulate artificial limbs. Following the war, Post began to spend less time at Mar a Lago, as societal changes made the annual winter pilgrimages and extravaganzas less common among the wealthy.
