Eldest daughter of Davis family, who inspired Dynasty, dead at 70

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Heiress Patty Davis Raynes, the eldest daughter of late oil baron Marvin Davis, was found dead on Thursday in her Wellington, Fla., home in the Palm Beach area.

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Raynes, who was 70, died from asthma and her body was discovered by her longtime housekeeper, according to the New York Post.

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A close friend is wondering if her frequent horseback-riding played a part in her death.

“She loved her horses so much but I think it made her asthma so much worse,” designer Frederick Anderson told the Post.

“A year ago she was out with me in Manhattan and she had such horrible asthma we had to call the doctor. I didn’t even know asthma could be so bad.”

As part of the Davis family, Raynes faced her share of tragedies including suing her own mother, siblings and financial advisers over allegedly helping her father loot her trust fund over 30 years.

Raynes eventually settled and the case was closed in 2008.

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Her son Nick Raynes was also found dead at age 33 in his Upper East Side bathroom in 2018 and her nephew Jason Davis died of a fentanyl overdose at age 35 in 2020.

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Raynes best friend, ’80s model Nina Griscom, also died from Lou Gehrig’s disease, known as ALS, in 2020.

“It was all so devastating for her, especially Nick’s death,” Anderson told the Post.

“And when Nina died, the two of them had been joined at the hip. But somehow she pulled herself together and managed to find joy in her life with her horses and her children. The saddest part was that she was back with her family members again. She and (sister) Nancy were hanging out. It’s so terrible, there will never be anyone like her again.”

As one of five children of Marvin Davis, Raynes grew up incredibly privileged as the oil tycoon made his money with Davis Petroleum.

The family’s wealth and lifestyle inspired Aaron Spelling’s nighttime soap Dynasty and during the ‘80s, Davis owned 20th Century Fox, the Pebble Beach Corporation, the Beverly Hills Hotel, and the Aspen Skiing Company.

But by the time Davis died in 2004, the family fortune was mostly gone.

Raynes is survived by her surviving children, Matthew and Ashley Raynes and had been divorced from New York real estate developer Marty Raynes since 2008.

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