At a surpisingly low-key service, Leona Helmsley is laid to rest

NEW YORK - A small group of mourners gathered yesterday to pay tribute to legendary hotel magnate Leona Helmsley, who was remembered not for her mercurial temper but for her charity and toughness.

The intimate funeral at the famed Frank E. Campbell funeral chapel on the upper East Side did not feature the fanfare that typically accompanies the passing of New York icons - a revealing sign of Helmsley's divisive personality.

For the friends and family who did attend, the service was fitting and an opportunity to speak about Helmsley's little-known sweet side. "She was wonderful and had a great sense of humor," said John Cody, an adviser who delivered a eulogy.

Frank LaRuffa, a construction consultant who knew her for 35 years, said the so-called Queen of Mean was misunderstood.

"She was very tough, but she was very fair," he said. "When she got angry she was usually right."

Helmsley died Monday of congestive heart failure at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn. She was 87.

Douglas Campbell, 73, a retired partner at a real estate firm, said Helmsley, who served prison time on a tax evasion charge, was a quiet philanthropist.

"She was a good, decent woman," he said. "She had a compassionate heart. . . . This woman was no Queen of Mean."

Helmsley was buried next to her husband, Harry, in a $1.4 million mausoleum in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Westchester County, N.Y.

The funeral home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan has played host to a long list of luminaries, including Judy Garland, John Lennon, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, boxer Rocky Graziano, muppeteer Jim Henson, Madame Chiang Kai-shek and Notorious B.I.G. *

The Associated Press contributed to this report.