Dorothy Payne Whitney was an Americanborn social activist and philanthropist and a member of the prominent Whitney family.
Whitney was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Flora and William Collins Whitney, the United States Secretary of the Navy during the first Cleveland administration from 1885 through 1889. Flora was the daughter of Senator Henry B. Payne of Ohio and sister of Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne, later treasurer of the Standard Oil Company. At age 17, she came into a major inheritance following the death of her extremely wealthy father.
Source: Wikipedia