While most of Katharine Hepburn’s estate will go to her family, the actress left money to the small Maryland church where her grandfather was a pastor and 4 pristine beachfront acres for “exclusively public purposes.”

Hepburn’s will, written in 1992, was filed with the town’s probate court Friday. She died at her waterfront home in the exclusive Fenwick section June 29. The will does not say how much her estate is worth.

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Her Connecticut home and New York townhouse were left to brother Robert Hepburn, sister Margaret Perry and to the families of her late brother, Richard, and late sister, Marion.

The house and 13 acres with a pond in back and Long Island Sound in front should be put on the market soon, said estate co-executor Erik Hanson, Hepburn’s accountant, financial consultant and friend.

Four years ago, the house’s value was set at $2 million, but it will undoubtedly sell for much more than that, local real estate agents said.

The 4.17 acres Hepburn left as protected public land to the east of her driveway is bordered by a crescent-shaped beach, rocky at the water’s edge and sandy farther in. The rest of the marshy land is filled with beach roses and grasses, bayberry, cattails and shrubs.

The Lynde Point Land Trust, which works to keep open space in Fenwick in its natural state, wants to be the recipient of the property. Trust President Ethel Davis said Monday that the trust has been talking with Hanson and ABC News correspondent Cynthia McFadden, the other co-executor. She said the trust would be the best owner because its aims are the same as Hepburn’s. Hanson said no decision has been made.

Though the will stipulates the land should go to a federal, state or local body or conservation organization for “the benefit of the general public,” Hanson said Hepburn intended the land to be preserved and protected and not be used by the public.

Hepburn also left $10,000 to Christ Church, I.U., a tiny brick church in eastern Maryland where her grandfather, Sewell Hepburn, served as a minister.

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For a church of only 30 parishioners, the gift is an uncommon windfall. Eleanor Noble, a cousin of Hepburn’s, says the money might be used to fund two projects the membership has discussed. Both ideas involve a 200-year-old white oak that used to stand in back of the 1860s Greek Revival church, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Under one scenario, the tree would be carved into a free-standing clock tower. In another, its giant stump, still rooted in the ground, would be preserved and turned into a timeline.

“You have limited funds and a limited membership,” said Noble, 71, whose husband, Thomas, is the church treasurer. “You have to be careful about money.”

Hepburn visited Christ Church during her stays at Shepherd’s Delight, her grandparents’ 250-acre wheat, corn and soybean farm nearby. Over the years, she regularly sent a check for $100 or so.

Hepburn hadn’t been back for more than 20 years, but few were surprised she left the church money. “I would have been surprised if she didn’t,” said Noble. “Family was important to her.”

Hepburn’s costumes, scripts, photographs, letters, scrapbooks and awards, including her Oscars, will go to a charitable organization of the executors’ choice. She also left it up to her executors to decide which of her manuscripts, letters and other personal papers should be published.

Several employees and associates will receive varying amounts of cash, with the biggest beneficiary Norah Considine Moore, who was left $200,000. Moore was “a close companion and housekeeper for over 30 years who came out of retirement to be with Katharine toward the end,” said Ellsworth Grant, whose wife was Hepburn’s sister, Marion.

McFadden, a close friend of Hepburn, will receive furniture from the New York townhouse, plus a painting Hepburn once did of a lighthouse.

Another painting, one of Hepburn done by British Columbian artist Myfanwy Spencer Pavelic, was, according to the will, to have gone to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, but, instead, before Hepburn’s death, was given to the town historical society.

Hanson said the name of the museum was wrong in the will and should have read National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. However, in the process of making the change, the executors and Smithsonian could not come to an agreement on the terms of the gift. “After many attempts to resolve the matter, it finally went to the historical society,” Hanson said.

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Hepburn asked in her will that no memorial service or funeral be held and that she be cremated, with her ashes interred in the family plot at Cedar Hill Cemetery Association in Hartford.

A discussion of this story with Courant Staff Writer Claudia Van Nes is scheduled to be shown on New England Cable News each half-hour today between 9 a.m. and noon.

KATE’S ESTATE

Here are some details of Katharine Hepburn’s will:

Proceeds from sale of Old Saybrook home and New York townhouse will go to family.

4.6 acres in Old Saybrook left as open space.

$200,000 to housekeeper Norah Considine Moore.

$50,000 to accountant Erik Hanson.

$10,000 and furniture to ABC News correspondent and friend Cynthia McFadden.

$5,000 to literary agent Freya Manson.

Source: https://t-tees.com
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