Leonore Annenberg, who as the widow of billionaire publisher Walter Annenberg continued his tradition of philanthropy and patronage of the arts, died Thursday. She was 91.

Annenberg died of natural causes at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., said family spokeswoman Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Annenberg was chairwoman and president of the Annenberg Foundation, which is based in the Philadelphia suburb of Radnor and has a mission “to advance the public well-being through improved communication.” She had led the institution since her husband’s death in October 2002.

The Annenberg Foundation, which also has offices in Los Angeles, has given more than 8,000 grants to nonprofit groups totaling nearly $4.2 billion since its creation in 1989, Jamieson said. The Annenbergs also established the School for Communication at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

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