Alta Rockefeller Prentice

Alta Rockefeller Prentice (April 12, 1871 – June 21, 1962) was an American philanthropist and socialite, daughter of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. Early life Alta was born on April 12, 1871, in Cleveland in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. She was the third daughter of John Davison Rockefeller (1839–1937) and Laura Celestia "Cettie" (née Spelman) Rockefeller (1839–1915). Among her siblings was Bessie Rockefeller, who married psychologist Charles Augustus Strong; Edith Rockefeller, who married Harold Fowler McCormick; and John D. Rockefeller Jr., who married Abby Aldrich and Martha Baird. Her father was a founder of the Standard Oil Company and, later in life, became a prominent philanthropist. Inheritance In 1917, her father gifted 12,000 shares of Standard Oil of Indiana (today known as Amoco), worth approximately $9,000,000 (equivalent to $ today), to a trust fund with Alta receiving the income except for $30,000 directed to her husband. By 1930, the original 12,000 shares had turned into 356,000 shares through stock splits and dividends paid with stocks. Married life On January 17, 1901, Alta was married to Colonel Ezra Parmalee Prentice (1863–1955) by the Rev. Dr. William Faunce, the President of Brown University and former pastor of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. The wedding, which took place on the wide landing of the staircase in the main hall of her parents brownstone in Manhattan located at 4 West 54th Street, had originally been planned as an elaborate church wedding but was changed to a quiet affair at the Rockefeller home due to the recent death of Alta's young nephew, John Rockefeller McCormick, from scarlet fever. Prentice, an attorney, was the son of Sartell Prentice and Mary Adeline (née Isham) Prentice and his maternal grandfather was Pierpoint Isham, a justice of the Vermont Supreme Court and a direct descendant of Rev. James Pierpont, the founder of Yale University. His uncle, Edward Swift Isham, was the law partner of Robert Todd Lincoln. Together, Alta and Ezra lived at 5 West 53rd Street in Manhattan (bought by her father for the couple as a wedding present) and were the parents of three children: