Terry Allen Kramer has passed

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Posted: 5/2/19 at 9:09pm

https://guardianlv.com/2019/05/terry-allen-kramer-broadway-legend-and-palm-beach-socialite-dies-at-85/

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a27348255/terry-allen-kramer-dead/

Terry Allen Kramer, a legendary Broadway producer and East Coast social fixture whose $135 million Palm Beach estate was the most expensive property ever listed when it was offered for sale last year in the exclusive enclave, died on Thursday in New York City, two close friends tell T&C.

Born in 1934, she was an heiress of Allen & Company, a Wall Street investment firm founded by her father, Charles Allen Jr., in 1922. At the time of her death, she was 85, according to published accounts

Everybody who was anybody went to her parties.
"Rest in peace granny, there will never been another like you," her granddaughter Chlo Goutal, a jewelry designer, wrote on Instagram.

Known for her deep Florida tan, husky voice, and a halo of blonde hair often accented with large diamond earrings, Kramer had dozens of Broadway producing credits to her name, include Tony-winners like The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? and Movin Out, as well as Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, an ambitious (if doomed) superhero musical scored by Bono, and the popular Kinky Boots, with music by Cyndi Lauper.

She was the grande dame of Palm Beach, said Nikki Haskell, who had known her since the 1970s. She was very feisty, very colorful, and everybody who was anybody went to her parties.

Kramers close friends included Joan Collins and Denise Rich. She was divorced twice, and had a daughter, Toni, who with her own daughter Chlo designs a namesake jewelry line. Towards the end of her life she was romantically linked to the actor George Hamilton, one of the few figures in American popular culture whose tan rivaled her own.

One of the most sought-after invitations in the Palm Beach fall season was Kramers annual Thanksgiving dinner at La Follia, her 13-bedroom, 37,516-square-foot mansion with views of both the ocean and the intracoastal waterway.

Ivana Trump became a regular visitor after her divorce from Donald Trump, who, like the financier Steven Schwartzman, was one of her near neighbors on Palm Beachs so-called Billionaires Row.


Friends dealing with the shock of her passing recalled Kramer as a society powerhouse with a big personality, who wasnt afraid to let her presence be known. She wielded a big stick, socially, said one Palm Beach neighbor, who declined to be identified by name. She was great to her friends, but you wouldnt want to be her enemy.

While visiting the Bahamas last month, Kramer reportedly fell ill with what one friend believes was pneumonia, and was placed in a medically-induced coma. She never recovered.

BEN WIDDICOMBE Contributing Editor
Contributing Editor Ben Widdicombe reports for T&C