CNN received some breaking news in the 10 a.m. ET hour that Anderson Cooper‘s mother, the legendary socialite, designer, and heiress Gloria Vanderbilt died of stomach cancer at her Manhattan home. She was 95. (TVNewser)
“Gloria Vanderbilt was an extraordinary woman who loved life and lived it on her own terms,” said Cooper in an on-air eulogy on CNN. Cooper said they learned she had advanced cancer only this month. (THR)
Vanderbilt was born in Manhattan, the only child of railroad heir Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt and his second wife, Gloria Morgan. (Deadline)
From a young age, Vanderbilt led a tumultuous life, one marked by a heated custody battle over her and her inheritance when she was young, and filled with marriages and business ventures as she grew older. (Variety)