Hartington Library Foundation picks up gift from Phelps estate

HARTINGTON — Recently the Hartington Library Foundation heard from an old friend. Wilma Phelps lived with her husband, Paul, near Obert. The couple farmed for many years near the Dixon and Cedar County line.

Wilma was an active patron of the Hartington Library and was a member of the Library’s Foundation Board of Trustees in the late 1990s. When her husband’s health failed, Wilma resigned her position and they moved to be closer to family.

In July of 2019, the Library received notice from the Court of Sarpy County that Wilma Phelps had died in May 2019, and remembering her days as a devoted library patron, she left a gift of $10,000 to the Hartington Library Foundation.

“Wilma was on the board when I started in 1998. I did not know her well, but she was a lover of reading and traveling. She often shared details of the exotic trips that she and Paul had taken,” said Joan Brodersen, current Treasurer of the Hartington Library Foundation. “What an honor that she remembered the Library in her will.”

The monetary gift will be managed by the Foundation, and growth from the principle will be used to purchase fiction and nonfiction books, according to Wilma’s wishes.