LOS ANGELES-Betsy Bloomingdale, a department store heir's widow who hobnobbed with the world's elite, epitomized high fashion and was best friends with former first lady Nancy Reagan, has died. She was 93.
The socialite and philanthropist died Tuesday at her home in the exclusive Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles from congestive heart failure, her daughter-in-law, Justine Bloomingdale, said Thursday.
The daughter of a Beverly Hills doctor, she married Alfred S. Bloomingdale-heir to the New York department store fortune-in 1946.
She patronized the hottest of haute couture designers in Europe and made best-dressed lists. In 1976, she was fined after pleading guilty to altering an invoice to undervalue the price of imported Dior gowns.
Bloomingdale is survived by her sons, Geoffrey and Robert; a daughter, Lisa Bell, eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.