Isidor Straus
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Isidor Straus

Born February 6, 1845
Otterberg, Germany
Died April 15, 1912 (aged 67)
Atlantic Ocean (sinking of RMS Titanic)
Other names Isadore Strauss
Occupation Co-owner of Macy's department store
Spouse(s) Rosalie Ida Blun
Children Jesse Isidor Straus
Clarence Elias Straus
Percy Seldon Straus
Sara (Straus) Hess
Hebert Nathan Straus
Vivian (Straus) Scheftel
Isidor Straus (February 6, 1845 – April 15, 1912)—a German Jewish American also knon as Isadore Strauss— was co-owner of the Macy's department store with his brother Nathan. He also served as a Member of Congress in the United States. He and his wife, Ida, died on board the RMS Titanic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isidor_Straus
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Jay Leno, car thief? The gearhead "Tonight Show" host is being sued for his $180,000 auction purchase of a classic car that once belonged to a Macy's heir. The daughter of late hot-wheels enthusiast John Straus says the owners of the E. 76th St. garage that housed the 1931 Model J Duesenberg for more than 50 years schemed to get Leno the car through a phony auction. "It was a sham," said Nathan Goldberg, a lawyer for Straus' daughter, Wendy Lubin. "It was designed by the garage company to provide Jay Leno with an unlawful private sale." The car had been in the Straus family since 1931, when Straus' dad, Herbert, had it delivered to the family's home in Red Bank, N.J.

John Straus bought the Duesenberg from his mother, and in the early 1950s put it and a 1930 Rolls-Royce in the Windsor Garage on the upper East Side. "This car meant a lot to this family," Goldberg said. "It was a precious family heirloom." The suit, filed yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court, accuses the Windsor Garage owners of taking advantage of John Straus' dementia to cook up the 2005 sale to Leno, who lusted after the Duesenberg. "Leno knew this car was not for sale, and Straus had made that clear to him," said Goldberg, adding that it is worth more than $1.5 million. A lawyer for Leno and the garage said the cars went on the block only after Straus became "extremely delinquent" in paying his storage fee.

"Mr. Leno bought the car in good faith," lawyer Bruce Bronster said. The garage's director of maintenance ended up with the Rolls, the suit says, when the company in 2005 refused to accept a $36,000 check from the ailing Straus for garaging the cars. "They took advantage of a man suffering from a debilitating illness," Goldberg said. Nonsense, Bronster said. "The allegations will be proven in a court of law to be untrue," he said. In the 2007 book "The Hemi in the Barn," Leno told how he concocted a tale to keep other prospective buyers away after Straus refused to sell it to him.

The suit says the car is in Leno's Big Dog Garage in Burbank, Calif., with a slew of other classic cars and custom motorcycles. Straus, whose grandparents co-owned Macy's and perished aboard the Titanic, died in May at age 87. "Even to his dying day, when he was approached by car enthusiasts about the Duesenberg, he would become entranced," Goldberg said. "That car was a part of his family."http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2165518/posts