Caroline Lina Webster Schermerhorn Astor (1830-1908).
- Profession:
- Residences: New York.
- Relation to Mahler: Friend, financier.
- Correspondence with Mahler: No.
- Born: 21-09-1830, New York City, America.
- Died: 30-10-1908, New York City, America.
- Buried: 00-00-0000 Trinity Church cemetery, New York, Manhattan, America.
Caroline Webster “Lina” Schermerhorn was a prominent American socialite of the last quarter of the 19th century. Famous for being referred to later in life as “the Mrs. Astor” or simply “Mrs. Astor”, she was the wife of businessman, racehorse breeder/owner, and yachtsman William Backhouse Jr. Astor (1829-1892).
Their son Colonel John Jacob Astor IV perished on the RMS Titanic. Through her marriage, she was a prominent member of the Astor family and matriarch of the male line of American Astors. Queen van de Metropolitan Opera (Met).
By the time she moved into her new house facing Central Park, at the corner of 65th Street, her husband had died, and she lived with her son and his family. Astor spent her last several years suffering from periodic dementia, and she died at age 78 on October 30, 1908, and was interred in the Trinity Church Cemetery located in the far southern section of Manhattan. In addition to her uptown burial plot, a commemorative 39 foot tall (11.9 m) cenotaph erected in her memory by her youngest daughter Carrie (according to the inscription dated A.D. MDMXIV) is located within the small churchyard cemetery at the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street, in which many prominent early Americans are buried.