Billie Tisch, the last of the original four family members whose philanthropic legacy endures in the prominent educational, cultural and medical institutions that bear their surname, died June 7 at her home in Manhattan. She was 98.

Mrs. Tisch was the widow of Laurence A. Tisch. Mr. Tisch and his brother, Preston Robert Tisch, became self-made billionaires by transforming a kosher hotel in Lakewood, NJ, into the Loews Corporation, a conglomerate that began as a movie theater chain and now has investments in hotels, drilling, natural gas pipelines, insurance and packaging. Forbes magazine has estimated the family’s fortune at $10 billion.

Mrs. Tisch was the first woman to be elected president of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. She was also chair of the WNYC Foundation, vice chair of United Way of New York City, and a trustee of the Carnegie Corporation. Billie and Laurence Tisch made major donations to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and New York University Medical Center, among other organizations. In 1997, they created the Tisch Children’s Zoo in Central Park with a $4.5 million gift.

“I believe that’s what one does with one’s free time is an expression of one’s deepest convictions,” she told The Times in 1981.