Knox woman leaves $1.35 million to community
By Rodney L. Sherman, CLARION NEWS Editor
Wilma E. “Wid” Logue “thought a lot of Knox and that is apparent from all she was, and all she continues to be to the community.”
That statement was part of the story Lynn Best told a March 27 gathering of Knox community groups as he issued checks totaling more than $1 million from Logue’s estate.
Logue, who passed away at the age of 99 on Sept. 15, 2012, directed Best, a relative she named as executor of her estate, to give $1 million to the Knox Public Library; $100,000 to the Knox Volunteer Fire Department; $100,000 to the Knox Civic Club; $50,000 to the Knox Area Ambulance Service; $50,000 to the Knox Lions Club; and $50,000 to Keystone High School to be used as a scholarship fund. The total of the bequests is $1,350,000.
But Logue’s legacy includes more than those donations – she also leaves a legacy of ardent support of education and community involvement.
Born Jan. 23, 1913, in Triangle/Knox Road area, she was a daughter of Warren Reuben Best and Twila Wesner Best. She graduated from Edenburg High School in 1930. She then attend Clarion State College, receiving her teaching degree. She also attended Duke University in Durham, N.C.
Logue began her teaching career at the Criswell School, a one-room schoolhouse in Richland Township. In 1937, she began teaching sixth grade at the White Memorial School in Knox. She married Joseph Warren Logue in 1943, and he preceded her in death in 1973. Together they owned and operated Knox Appliance and Gift Shop from 1945-70.
She was a longtime member of the Clarion County Garden Club, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution since 1942, the Clarion County Historical Society and the American Legion Auxiliary in Knox.
She was also an active member of the Knox Civic Club for more than 55 years. In earlier years, she was part of a group of members from the Junior Civic Club, which helped establish the Knox Public Library.
O, where did all that money come from?
How did a woman of modest background and business ownership acquire such wealth to leave to the community?
That’s where “Uncle Willis” Wesner enters the story. And no, Logue did not inherit the money.
As Best told the gathering of about 45 people last week, “Uncle Willis” was Logue’s mother’s brother.
“As ‘Wid’ liked to say, Uncle Willis came to visit for two weeks and stayed for 40-plus years,” Best said .
Uncle Willis left Clarion County as a young man and went west to work in the early days of the oil industry in Oklahoma and Texas. He later acquired 160 acres of land in South Dakota under the Homestead Act. There he built a small farm with his wife.
“He ‘tried to farm,’” explained Best. “They had a son, but he died and a year or so later, the wife died, too. ”
Uncle Willis left South Dakota and returned to the western oil fields for a time before coming for that “two week” visit at his sister’s home near Knox.
“Uncle Willis never left,” said Best. “He stayed for the next 40 years and ‘Wid’ loved that man.”
Best explained that while Uncle Willis never had much money, he had a passion for the stock market. Uncle Willis would often go to Oil City where he could watch the ticker tape report from Wall Street.
“He just watched and imagined,” explained Best. “He studied the market and tracked what stocks he would have bought if he had the money.
“And he often took a young Wilma along, preaching to her how to play the stock market, teaching her how to invest.”
Best said Logue took the lessons and advice to heart and followed Uncle Willis’ instruction.
“And she made money,” explained Best.
Logue also followed another habit of Uncle Willis.
“Every evening, Uncle Willis snuck away and had a drink of alcohol and Wid, being the young whippersnapper she was, had a shot with him,” Best told the gathering.
Best said Logue’s investments allowed her travel to nearly every corner of the world.
“And every evening, she drank a toast to Uncle Willis,” said Best.
Best told the group following the issuance of the bequests, he would open a bottle of Canadian Club whiskey Logue had left behind for the event and all present could drink a toast to Logue and Uncle Willis.
The library
Logue’s $1 million bequest to the Knox Public Library will be administered by the Clarion University Foundation. Each year, the library will draw a set percentage from the bequest’s earnings.
In late 2010, the Knox Library Board of Trustees learned an anonymous donor was giving the library $120,000 to be used to purchase and renovate the former Clarion Forest Visiting Nurses Association building in Knox.
The Knox Library was able to move out of the Knox Municipal Building last year and into the new location.
The donor of that $120,000 was Logue.
Knox Library Board of Trustees member and Knox Borough Council member Tom Goble worked with Logue and the Clarion University Foundation to administer the $120,000 donation, however, Goble was sworn to secrecy at the time by Logue.
“It was an honor to be her friend and do her bidding,” Goble said at the March 27 gathering. “It was also an honor to catch hell from her.”
Goble said Logue wanted to ensure the perpetual financial health of the library she helped start those many years ago.
Goble said many other groups and individuals helped with the new library project, but Logue’s generosity and dedication to the library was the foundation of the project.
Knox Public Librarian Roxanne Miller said Logue refused to allow the library to be renamed in her honor.
“So instead, we will name the building itself the “Wilma and Joe Logue Building,” said Miller. “Wid was very involved with library and especially the children’s programs. We still ask ourselves ‘What would Wid think of this?’ when we plan children’s programs.
“We miss her very much.”
Best said about two months before she passed way, Logue called him to meet with her.
Best said even at the age of 99, Logue was still instructing him, acting with her power of attorney, where to invest her money.
“I went to see her and she told me to go get myself a shot of Canadian Club whiskey,” recalled Best. “She asked me to bring her a small glass of wine. I brought the drinks into her room.
“Doggoned if she didn’t toast Uncle Willis.”
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