A shy New York woman whom no one took to be wealthy left a
shockingly happy surprise when she died: $20 million in donations
to the city's libraries and main park.
Mary McConnell Bailey lived modestly and volunteered at a hospital
and schools, before dying at 88 last year, the New York Post
newspaper reported Tuesday.
Now, the Post says, it emerges that the New York Public Library and
Central Park Conservancy recently received checks from her estate
worth $10 million a piece.
"You would have never known" she was rich, the Post quoted her
former best friend and neighbor, Lizanne Stoll, as saying. "When we
went to lunch, it was usually Dutch," she said, meaning everyone
paid for themselves.
The library's top donations official told the newspaper he'd met
the unassuming Bailey often, but couldn't remember her voice.
"That's how soft-spoken she was."
According to the Post, Bailey came from a wealthy family and moved
to New York in the 1940s, then inherited a fortune. However, she
spent little and lived in a basic Manhattan apartment.