Lorillard died early Monday at the Heatherwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Newport, said Lori Curtin, director of quality assurance.
Lorillard is best remembered for inspiring jazz club owner George Wein to create the Newport Jazz Festival, the first such gathering in the United States and the model for hundreds of similar celebrations worldwide.
While visiting Wein's club in 1953, she told him jazz might liven up the “terribly boring" social scene in the summer resort for the rich. Her husband, Louis, a tobacco heir, gave Wein a $20,000 line of credit to start the festival.
The first event in July 1954 attracted 11,000 fans to hear jazz giants including Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
