Atkins Gift

Atkins Gift. . , She was a woman of few words, but her wealth spoke volumes. Mary Atkins had been a school teacher in her younger years, and didn’t marry until her early forties when she met and fell in love with widower, James Burris Atkins. Then, just eight years into their marriage, Atkins, a successful real estate speculator, fell ill and died. Mary was left with a $250,000 estate. To some that amount would make a comfortable nest egg, but to Mary, it was simply “seed money.” Over the next 25 years, following in her husband’s speculating footsteps, Mary Atkins grew her estate to more than one million dollars. She died on October 13, 1911, and, in death, her will said more than Mary had spoken in her whole life., Of the million dollar-plus estate, Mary left half to her relatives, a quarter to her church and an amazing $350,000 to Kansas City for the purpose of building an art museum. The city was so stunned, it took 16 years to decide how to use the money. Not a bad thing when you consider that Mary’s gift had doubled in value while it waited patiently in the bank., In 1915, as decisions were being finalized, William Rockhill Nelson passed away and designated his estate to the purchase of works of art and designated his heirs’ estates for a building to house the art. And such was born a marriage truly “made in heaven.” The city combined the two gifts and created the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the quiet Mary Atkins, who lived out her last five years as a recluse in downtown’s Washington Hotel, made an enduring mark on Kansas City culture.