104-year-old millionaire released from hospital

NEW YORK (AP) -- Millionaire philanthropist and high-society queen Brooke Astor was released from a hospital Saturday, several days after being admitted amid a family dispute over whether she was being neglected by her son.
Astor, 104, left the Lennox Hill Hospital shortly after 1 p.m., said Fraser Seitel, a spokesman for Annette de la Renta, Astor's close friend.
De la Renta, the wife of designer Oscar de la Renta, was appointed as Astor's temporary legal guardian while a court decides who will be her permanent caregiver.
"According to her doctor ... she has improved dramatically," Seitel said. "She was up and walking yesterday, and she has now been released."
He said Astor's physician, Sandra Gelbard, had done "a terrific job" stabilizing her health. Seitel wouldn't say Saturday where Astor was headed after leaving the hospital.
Long considered the grande dame of Manhattan society, Astor ran the Astor Foundation after the death of her third husband, Vincent Astor, in 1959. The foundation gave away approximately $200 million by the time it closed at the end of 1997.
Astor's grandson, Philip Marshall, filed court papers asking that his father, Anthony Marshall, be removed as her guardian.
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