Leona Helmsley
Leona Mindy Roberts Helmsley was an American businesswoman. She was known for her flamboyant personality and had a reputation for tyrannical behavior that earned her the sobriquet Queen of Mean. She was promoted by the Beber Silverstein Group and its cofounder Joyce Beber who persuaded her to call herself Queen of the Palace Hotel.
Leona Helmsley was born Lena Mindy Rosenthal in Marbletown, New York, to Polish Jewish immigrants, Ida , a homemaker, and Morris Rosenthal, a hatmaker. Her family moved to Brooklyn while she was still a girl, and moved six more times before settling in Manhattan. She dropped out of Abraham Lincoln High School to seek her fortune. In a short time, she changed her name several timesfrom Lee Roberts, Mindy Roberts and Leni Roberts. Eventually, she decided on Leona Mindy Roberts. She legally changed her surname to Roberts. She was a chain smoker, consuming several packs a day. Helmsley would later claim that she appeared in billboard ads for Chesterfield cigarettes, but her claim remains unsubstantiated.
Source: Wikipedia