Caroline Rose Hunt

Caroline Rose Hunt (January 8, 1923 – November 13, 2018) was an American heiress and hotelier who was at one time the wealthiest woman in the United States. She is known for having been the founder of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, which she opened in 1979. Early life Caroline Rose Hunt was born on January 8, 1923, the daughter of oilman H. L. Hunt (1889–1974) and Lyda Bunker (1889–1955). She had six siblings: Margaret Hunt Hill (1915–2007), H. L. Hunt III (1917–2005), Lyda Bunker Hunt (born and died in 1925), Nelson Bunker Hunt (1926–2014), William Herbert Hunt (born 1929), and Lamar Hunt (1932–2006). While she was growing up, the family lived in the east Texas town of Tyler. Hunt said that as a child, she was unaware of the family's wealth until she found a Life magazine picture of her father, "with a caption that asked, 'Is this the richest man in the world?' " She was educated at the Hockaday School, an all-girl boarding school in Dallas. She then attended Mary Baldwin College, a private women's college in Staunton, Virginia, for two years, until she transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and art history. Career Prior to her first marriage, Hunt worked in her father's Dallas office. She later worked as a sales clerk at the Neiman Marcus department store in Dallas. During her first marriage and through much of her second, she focused on her family and charitable work, not holding any job outside the home until she entered the hotel business at age 55.