Iowa woman leaves more than $1.3 million to 7 different Fort Dodge organizations

By Marcus McIntosh

Click here for updates on this story

    FORT DODGE, Iowa (KCCI) — Bonnie Barnett was a hard worker who lived a modest life in Fort Dodge. Few knew she had saved a small fortune by often working two jobs until after her death last fall at the age of 80.

Now, several organizations are benefitting from the large gifts she left in her will.

Barnett gave more than $530,000 to Iowa Central Community College, money that will be used to create an endowed scholarship in her name. That and gifts to the local YWCA, Trinity Health Foundation, Domestic Sexual Abuse Outreach Center, Humane Society of Central Iowa, and the Boy Scouts of America Troop 8 totaled more than $1.3 million.

Jesse Ulrich, president of Iowa Central, said he was astonished by Barnett’s generosity.

“We are just blessed to be able to receive this gift,” he said. “Bonnie was well known in our community and I remember Bonnie for working at the cash register at the grocery store. Just a sweet person.”

Iowa Central was close to Barnett’s heart — she was a student there from 1961-1962. She also worked for the dining service that served meals to the campus community.

Fort Dodge Library leaders are still trying to decide what do with their gift of more than $130,000.

“We had gotten some books in, and we looked and thought if Bonnie were still alive, these are the kinds she would have checked out,” said Rita Schmidt, the Fort Dodge Public Library director. “We’d have called her and said, ‘Hey Bonnie, we’ve got this book in for you.'”

Bonnie is described as a hard worker who often worked she worked two jobs at a time.

Mark Crimmins, an attorney who is the executor of Barnett’s estate, says it seems like she saved nearly every penny she earned.

“She worked at the Starlight Village as a waitress for … probably 30-40 years. I know we found some cash in her house. That had to be tips that she saved,” he said. “… And she invested it and didn’t spend any money.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.