Dorothy Payne Whitney was the daughter of William Collins Whitney, who served as the United States Secretary of the Navy during the first Cleveland administration (1885-1889), and his first wife, Flora Payne Whitney, the daughter of Senator Henry B. Payne. She was married in 1911 to Willard Dickerman Straight, who died during the 1918 pandemic while serving with the United States Army in France during World War I. She was married in 1925 to Leonard Knight Elmhirst, an Englishman from a Yorkshire landowning family. They embarked on ambitious plans to recreate rural community life at Dartington Hall in Devon, undertaking a major restoration and conservation of Dartington Hall. She founded Dartington College of Arts and Dartington International Summer School.

In his 1980 biography of Dorothy (Whitney) Elmhirst, entitled Whitney Father, Whitney Heiress, W. A Swanberg writes, page 471:

"...her funeral ceremony was held at the Anglican church in the village. She was cremated and her ashes scattered in her own Dartington garden, where Leonard's ashes were later to join hers."

Dorothy Payne Whitney was the daughter of William Collins Whitney, who served as the United States Secretary of the Navy during the first Cleveland administration (1885-1889), and his first wife, Flora Payne Whitney, the daughter of Senator Henry B. Payne. She was married in 1911 to Willard Dickerman Straight, who died during the 1918 pandemic while serving with the United States Army in France during World War I. She was married in 1925 to Leonard Knight Elmhirst, an Englishman from a Yorkshire landowning family. They embarked on ambitious plans to recreate rural community life at Dartington Hall in Devon, undertaking a major restoration and conservation of Dartington Hall. She founded Dartington College of Arts and Dartington International Summer School.

In his 1980 biography of Dorothy (Whitney) Elmhirst, entitled Whitney Father, Whitney Heiress, W. A Swanberg writes, page 471:

"...her funeral ceremony was held at the Anglican church in the village. She was cremated and her ashes scattered in her own Dartington garden, where Leonard's ashes were later to join hers."