Woman leaves $1M trust to town, organizations

VIENNA – Churches and community groups in this small central Maine town have received an unexpected gift from a lifelong resident who died last year.

Dorothy Waugh, who was known in town as the “Egg Lady” because she sold eggs out of her home, died last May at the age of 86. It turns out Waugh left a $1 million trust fund to benefit the churches she attended and groups she participated in over the decades.

While the amount of the gift has caught many by surprise, those who knew Waugh said her final wish to support her community was typical of how she lived.

“She was there for everybody in town, and she was involved with everything in town,” said Libby Harville, a close friend.

Waugh was born in 1917 in her parents’ house in the town village. That’s where she lived until shortly before her death in a nursing home in Farmington. She and her husband, who died in 1997, didn’t have any children.

Waugh was well-known around the town of about 500, where she attended two churches and was a member of the Mill Stream Grange and the Vienna Historical Society. She also was Vienna’s elected treasurer for about 30 years and once refused a pay raise.

Her goodwill will continue after her death. Among the beneficiaries of the trust are the grange, the historical society, Vienna Baptist Church, Vienna Methodist Church, a cemetery and the town of Vienna.

Bangor Savings Bank is managing the trust, and the money is expected to be distributed from interest that is generated on the principal. Representatives of the beneficiaries will meet after they receive letters from the bank explaining details of the trust.

Selectwoman Dodi Thompson said the town will use its share to help maintain the historic Town House, the seat of Vienna’s municipal government since 1855.

“I would call Dorothy a true pillar of the community. She cared about the community,” said Thompson.

Gay Anderson, an officer of the Mill Stream Grange, said the organization will use its money to maintain its building and pay the $15 annual dues for those who have been members for more than 50 years.

Thompson said Waugh’s photograph will be printed on the cover of the town report, due out by early March. Because the Board of Selectmen learned of the trust fund after the 2003 report went to the printers, a full page will be devoted to Waugh in next year’s edition, she said.