Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt Gerry (née Dresser) was born in Newport, Rhode Island, on January 17, 1873. Gerry was a prominent philanthropist who managed the Biltmore Estate (Buncombe County, North Carolina) following the sudden death of her husband George Washington Vanderbilt in 1914. She died in Providence, Rhode Island, on December 21, 1958.