She attended Durham's Trinity College, the institutional predecessor of Duke University, which was named in honor of her family.

She was a great enthusiast for the arts and traveled frequently with her family to New York City for the theater and opera, later becoming an accomplished singer and musician.

[2] In 1912 she was engaged to Prince Ludovic Pignatelli d'Aragon, an Italian nobleman, who tried to kill himself after the marriage was cancelled.

She and her husband owned an estate, "Linden Court", in Tarrytown, New York, bought from the William R. Harris family in 1921.

The Foundation commissioned American composer Norman Dello Joio to write a piece for the Duke University Band and its conductor Paul Bryan titled Variants on a Medieval Tune based on the melody In dulci jubilo.