Late Heiress Leaves $20 Million to NY Public Library and Central Park Conservancy
A late widow who lived in a modest New York City apartment, eschewed fancy jewelry and favored track suits over furs has surprised friends by leaving a $20 million fortune to the New York Public Library and a nonprofit group that looks after Central Park.
Mary McConnell Bailey died at age 88 in 2011.
From The NY Post:
The library and Central Park Conservancy recently got checks for $10 million each.
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Even the library didn’t know how much she was going to donate.
“I met her many times and had lunch with her twice, but I cannot remember her voice. That’s how soft-spoken she was,” said John Bacon, the library’s director of planned giving.
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Bailey’s family had owned shares in the Roaring Spring Blank Book Co., which produces the marble-cover notebooks nearly every schoolkid uses.
Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.