Lorinda de Roulet, who briefly ran the New York Mets in the late 1970s after the death of her mother, Joan Whitney Payson, the team’s first owner, and before the team was sold to the book publisher Doubleday & Company and the real estate developer Fred Wilpon, died on Oct. 26 at her home in Manhasset, N.Y. She was 95.
Her daughter Whitney Bullock confirmed the death.
Mrs. de Roulet became the team’s president, elected by its board, after her mother’s death in 1975. Three years later, she was elevated to chairwoman, after the board ousted M. Donald Grant in late 1978.
Mr. Grant, a stockbroker, was known for his protracted salary dispute with Tom Seaver, the team’s star pitcher, which led to Seaver’s trade to the Cincinnati Reds in June 1977, widely considered the lowest point in Mets team history.
“It never occurred to me that I’d wind up running the team,” Mrs. de Roulet told The New York Times a few days after taking over as chairwoman. “I guess I thought mother would keep running things, and my husband was interested, too.”
It was not an easy time for the Mets. They had won the 1969 World Series but lost the 1973 Series to the Oakland A’s and fell into a deep funk soon after. In both 1977 and 1978, they finished in last place in the National League East.
In 1979, during spring training in St. Petersburg, Fla., rumors surfaced about a potential sale. That decision would ultimately fall to Mrs. de Roulet’s father, Charles Shipman Payson, a financier and sportsman (as well as a Boston Red Sox fan) who had inherited majority control of the team from his wife.
“My mother had an emotional tie to the team that I inherited, and that my father may not have,” Mrs. de Roulet told The Times. “So it could come down to my emotional interest against his practical interest. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
She promised a comeback for the team, but that did not happen. A new mascot that a friend suggested, a mule named Mettle, did not inspire the team to greatness or the fans to pack Shea Stadium, their home at the time.
The Mets finished in last place again in 1979, with a 63-99 record, losing 14 out of 15 games in one stretch in September. Attendance at Shea Stadium nose-dived to 788,095 that year from just over a million in 1978.
“Money was the problem,” Mrs. Bullock said in an interview. “Mum was doing her best under difficult circumstances.” Mrs. de Roulet remained a fan until she died.
Lorinda Payson was born on May 8, 1930, in Manhattan. Her mother owned a thoroughbred horse stable, a significant art collection and a 10 percent stake in the New York Giants baseball team until they left for San Francisco in 1957, a move she opposed. Joan Whitney Payson became the first woman to buy a Major League Baseball franchise when she put her money behind the Mets, a National League expansion team that debuted in 1962.
Lorinda, who was known as Linda, attended Wellesley College but left before graduating to marry Vincent de Roulet in 1951. At the time she was named president of the Mets, she had been focusing on raising their three children and doing charitable work.
Running a moribund team was a difficult task, Mrs. de Roulet discovered. In late July 1979, when the Mets were 41-53, she told The Times: “I must be nuts. But I’m the eternal optimist. It’s frustrating, it’s a very discouraging business. But in my heart, I believe I’m here to stay, and I know there’s no change in my father’s feelings.”
At one point she thought she had a deal that would preserve the family’s ownership: John O. Pickett Jr., the owner of the New York Islanders hockey team, would invest $9 million in return for a one-third ownership share and “provide us with the expertise that we needed,” Mrs. Bullock recalled. (Mrs. Bullock worked for the team in group sales and publicity; her sister, Sandra de Roulet, worked in the accounting and promotions departments.)
But at the end of the season, Mr. Payson sold the team in its entirety to the Doubleday-Wilpon group for $21.1 million, a deal engineered by Mr. Pickett, a friend of Mr. Doubleday’s. Mr. Payson used some of the money to buy and renovate a thoroughbred horse-training center in Florida with his new wife, Virginia Kraft.
Mrs. de Roulet was in the news again in 1989, when she sold the Picasso oil painting “Au Lapin Agile” for $40.7 million to the philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg at a Sotheby’s auction. (She had inherited the painting, a 1905 Picasso self-portrait, from her mother, who paid $60,000 for it in 1952.)
Mrs. de Roulet used some of the proceeds to start the Patrina Foundation, supporting girls and women in areas like education and job training. She also formed Shelter Rock Investors, a private equity firm, and went on to join the boards of several organizations, including NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the Nassau County Museum of Art, and to serve as president of North Shore University Hospital on Long Island.
In addition to Mrs. Bullock, Mrs. de Roulet is survived by her other daughter, Sandra; her son, Daniel; five grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren. Mr. de Roulet, a former United States ambassador to Jamaica and president of a marketing company, died in 1975.
In 1980, when the Mets held a news conference to introduce Mr. Wilpon and Nelson Doubleday Jr., the president of the publishing company that bore his family’s name, as the new team owners, Mrs. de Roulet expressed sadness about relinquishing the team that her mother had cherished.
“Although I hoped with all my heart that my family could keep the Mets, my enthusiasm and optimism were not enough to return the team to its winning ways,” she said, adding: “I would like to toast the past, the glorious past, and the glorious future, and the memory of my mother.”
Richard Sandomir, an obituaries reporter, has been writing for The Times for more than three decades.
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