Arts Patron Olive Behrendt Dies

Olive Behrendt, the Los Angeles culture devotee who raised millions of dollars for musical causes, died early today in Venice, Italy. She was 72 and death was attributed to a pulmonary embolism.

The widow of insurance executive George Behrendt was a founding member of the Amazing Blue Ribbon, the prime support group for the Music Center, and was one of the center’s leading fund-raisers when it opened in 1964.

A once-promising operatic soprano who gave up that career for marriage, Mrs. Behrendt traditionally went to live in Venice during the months that separated the ending of the Los Angeles Philharmonic season and the summer opening of the Hollywood Bowl. Her husband died in Venice in 1970.

A woman of diverse interests, she spoke four languages, was the only licensed woman speedboat operator in Venice and supported a Catholic orphanage and local hospital expansion campaigns in Austria.