Donna Helble died in March. The longtime teacher at Winona State University passed away with no immediate family, but a large farm that had been passed down to her.
Last week her legacy was cemented in the education community in DeWitt, Iowa, when the 381 acres of farmland was auctioned off to help more than a dozen academic and service organizations in Iowa and Minnesota, WQAD reported.
The four family farm tracts were last sold in 1911, and in 15 minutes they all had new owners and the organizations had donations of $4.7 million.
One area brought in almost $2 million. The least: $850,000, WQAD reported.
Some of the money has already been pledged for an educational wing at Simpson College, the school from which Helble received her bachelors of arts in elementary education and French, according to her obituary.
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