NEW YORK, April 7 Elizabeth Kals Reilley, who donated her large collection of horticultural books and art to the New York Botanical Garden, has died at age 99.
Her death was announced by the organization, The New York Times reported.
Born in an upper-class family in Vienna, Reilley was first exposed to gardens on walks with her governess. She later studied painting in Paris and archaeology in Vienna.
She was "invited to leave" Austria in 1939 after helping her Jewish first husband and Jewish friends get out of the country. In New York, Reilley worked as a librarian and photographer. In 1969, she began work on a library at the Planting Fields Arboretum near her home in Muttontown, and served as its librarian from its opening in 1975 to her retirement at age 93 in 2001.
Reilley spent years scouring book stores for rare volumes on gardening. She donated the collection -- which included planning diagrams of the gardens at Versailles and a print of a Medici tree-house -- in 2002.
Reilley was twice divorced. Her third husband, Ewing Reilley, died in 1988.
She planned to leave her Long Island estate, which includes a 200-year-old farmhouse and extensive gardens, to the Nature Conservancy.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
