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Local Family Remembers the Community in Their Will

Throughout their lives, Frank Fisher Jr., and his sister, Betty Lou Fisher, were caretakers of the land. Now they are caretakers of the community’s health.

Through their will, the Fishers left their large estate valued at $3.2 million to Sarah Bush Lincoln. A farmer his entire life, Frank Fisher left the 300-acre family farm and his estate to his sister when he passed away on Nov. 3, 2010. His sister, Betty Lou, who was a registered nurse at Mattoon Memorial Hospital before she retired in 1977, left the farm in trust for the benefit of the Health Center when she died on April 6, 2011. She also left the remainder of her estate to the Health Center.

The Fishers, who were both born in Mt. Carmel, lived in Mattoon throughout their lives with neither of them ever marrying. Long-time family friend Jim Bell, whose family has farmed the land for the Fishers for more than 20 years, said the Fishers made the decision more than four decades ago while their mother was still living to give the remainder of their estate to the Health Center.

Frank was a steward of the land being one of the first to adopt parallel terrace outlets and using no-till for soil conservation long before they were widely accepted farming practices. In fact, he was recognized with the National No-Till Soybean Yield Contest in 1966 and two years later received the Goodyear Conservation Award in 1968. While Betty Lou was a registered nurse and a graduate of Deaconess School of Nursing in Evansville, Ind., her passion was farming and tending to her flowers and vegetable gardens. Today, the family farm will continue to provide Sarah Bush Lincoln with annual gifts.

Preston Smith, President of First National Bank in Mattoon, said, the bank’s Trust Department will manage the farm land and the Fisher’s trusted and close friends, Jim and Joyce Bell, will continue to farm it. He estimates that the land, located north of Illinois Route 121 on the Dole Road, would net between $60,000 and $80,000 a year.  Their cash assets of $500,000 were recently given to the Health Foundation.

Kim Uphoff, SBL Vice President of the Health Foundation said, “We are so honored to receive the Fisher’s gift of their life’s work. A portion of it will be put to excellent use in our Funding the Future campaign. Through an anonymous donor, their gift will be matched making their $500,000 gift worth $1 million.” She added that an area of the Health Center on the Adult Care Unit will be named for them.

SBL President and CEO Tim Ols said, “The generosity of these fine people is amazing. They had so many options in which to leave their estate, and because Betty Lou was a registered nurse during her career, together the family chose to continue to care for the community long after they were gone from this Earth. It is a wonderful gift.”

Bell, a fourth generation farmer, first met the Fishers as farming neighbors and became better acquainted with them at the grain elevator at Coles Station. “They were very kind and thoughtful people who put God in the forefront of their lives. They lived a simple life, not extravagant in anyway; actually they were quite conservative people.”

He added that Frank was an activist lobbying on farm issues with elected state officials, while Betty Lou was a historian, enjoying genealogy. “Betty Lou was a sentimental person and continued the practice of attaching notes to various items describing when and from where items in their home came, which was first established by her mother,” Bell said.

Bell and his son, Wyatt, are honored to continue to farm the land and be good stewards of it.