Leona Helmsley has passed away at the age of 87 from heart failure. Over at the New York Times/City Room, Sewell Chan (with assistance from Roja Heydarpour) was the first out of the gate with a proper obituary within an hour of Howard Rubinstein‘s formal announcement. At press time, the Daily News is running with an AP Wire story (and the Post only opted for a one sentence blurb).

From Rubinstein’s statement:

“Leona was a great businesswoman in her own right who created a tremendous brand and success with Helmsley Hotels and was a wonderful partner and wife to Harry Helmsley,” Mr. Rubenstein said in a statement. “She was extremely generous as a philanthropist and she gave tens of millions of dollars to charity right up until the last months of her life. I was very proud to represent her for so many years. Her family and many friends and business associates are deeply saddened by her death and will miss her greatly.”

— Neal Ungerleider