Maid Who Married J&J Millionaire Dies

Barbara Piasecka Johnson—an immigrant maid who married an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and later set off a well-publcizied public battle for his estate—has died at the age of 76 in her native land of Poland.

Having been hired by the second wife of J. Seward Johnson Sr. as cook and maid, Ms. Piasecka eventually married Mr. Johnson, who had set up her in a New York City apartment and was 42 years her senior. The pair was married for a dozen years and had built a palatial estate in Princeotn, NJ.


When Mr. Johnson died in 1983, he bequeathed nearly all of his holding to her, valued at an estimated $500 million. He named just one of his children in his will.

The children challenged the will and a three-year struggle ensued. The case was settled before it went to a jury; Mrs. Johnson kept more than $300 million of the estate while the children received more than $40 million. An oceanographic institute that Mr. Johnson founded which was also involved in the suit awarded $20 million.