Sybil Kent Kane (1856 – February 15, 1946) was an American socialite who was prominent in New York Society during the

Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...

Early life

Kane was born at the family home on August 28, 1844, in

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is a seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Rhode Island, United States. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and nort ...

. She was the second youngest of eight children born to Oliver DeLancey Kane and Louisa Dorothea (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Langdon). Kane's brothers were Walter Langdon Kane,

John Innes Kane John Innes Kane (July 29, 1850 – February 1, 1913) was an American explorer, scientist and philanthropist who was prominent in New York Society during the Gilded Age. Early life Kane was born in 1850, one of eight children born to Oliver DeLa ...

, DeLancey Astor Kane, S. Nicholson Kane, and

Woodbury Kane Woodbury Kane (February 8, 1859 – December 5, 1905) was a yachtsman and bon vivant, and member of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders. A director of the Metropolitan Register Company, Kane served aboard the ''Columbia'' in the 1899 America's ...

. Her sisters were the artist Louisa Langdon Kane, and Emily Astor Kane (who married Augustus Jay and was the mother of Peter Augustus Jay). She was a granddaughter of Walter Langdon and Dorothea (née Astor) of the

Astor family The Astor family achieved prominence in business sector, business, Socialite, society, and politics in the United States and the United Kingdom during the 19th and 20th centuries. With Germans, German roots, some of their ancestry goes back to th ...

and a great-granddaughter of

John Jacob Astor John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-born American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor. Astor made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by exporting History of opiu ...

. Kane was also a cousin of Lt. Col.

John Jacob Astor IV John Jacob Astor IV (July 13, 1864 – April 15, 1912) was an American business magnate, real estate developer, investor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish–American War, and a prominent member of the Astor family. He was among the most ...

. Her paternal lineage descended from John O'Kane who emigrated to the country in 1752 from

County Londonderry County Londonderry (Ulster Scots dialects, Ulster-Scots: ''Coontie Lunnonderrie''), also known as County Derry (), is one of the six Counties of Northern Ireland, counties of Northern Ireland, one of the thirty-two Counties of Ireland, count ...

and

Antrim, Ireland County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a populatio ...

. During the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, O'Kane (who dropped the "'O" once in America) was living at Sharyvogne, his estate in

Dutchess County Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later org ...

, which was confiscated after the War due to his

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

times. His eldest son, John Jr., stayed and became one of the most prominent merchants in New York. In New York, the family lived at 23

West 47th Street ''West 47th Street'' is a documentary film produced by Lichtenstein Creative Media. ''West 47th Street'' is an intimate cinéma vérité portrait of four people with serious mental illness as their lives naturally unfold over a three-year perio ...

. In Newport, the family lived at "Beach Cliffe", designed by

Detlef Lienau Detlef Lienau (17 February 1818 – 29 August 1887) was a German architect born in Holstein. He is credited with having introduced the Rococo, French style to American building construction, notably the mansard roof and all its decorative flourish ...

, which was one of the earliest Newport cottages "to attain a sort of Beaux-Arts purity."

Society life

In 1892, Kane, as the youngest unmarried daughter of her parents, and two of her brothers (Nicholson, DeLancey, and his wife Eleanora Iselin) were included in

Ward McAllister Samuel Ward McAllister (December 28, 1827 – January 31, 1895) was a popular arbiter of social taste in the Gilded Age of America, widely accepted as the authority to which families could be classified as the cream of New York society ( The Fou ...

's "

Four Hundred 400 (four hundred) is the natural number following 399 and preceding 401. Mathematical properties A circle is divided into 400 grads. Integers from 401 to 499 400s 401 401 is a prime number, tetranacci number, Chen prime, prime index p ...

", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.

Personal life

Kane, who never married and had no children, lived a relatively modest life at her home in Little Neck on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. She inherited from her parents and siblings, several of whom also died unmarried, upon their deaths. Kane died at her home on Long Island on February 15, 1946, and was the last surviving member of her immediate family. Her funeral services were held at the Chapel of the Comforter at 10 Horatio Street in New York City and she was buried alongside her family at the

Island Cemetery The Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery are a pair of separate cemeteries on Farewell and Warner Street in Newport, Rhode Island. Together they contain over 5,000 graves, including a colonial-era slave cemetery and Jewish graves. The pai ...

in Newport.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kane, Sybil Kent 1856 births 1946 deaths Sybil Kent Kane People from Douglaston–Little Neck, Queens Socialites from Manhattan Kane family Burials at Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery