A year after the second-largest estate gift ever made to a Kentucky higher education institution was announced, the donor has been revealed. Western Kentucky University graduate Mary Elizabeth Hutto made the $3.5 million bequest to her school. Hutto told Western last October they would be getting the gift. She died April 9.Hutto had already given $250,000 for scholarships at the university. Interest from the endowment established by the bequest will provide $175,000 annually to fund 70 renewable scholarships of $2,500. The scholarships would be for students who rank high in their class or score high on the ACT but dont qualify for a Presidents or Regents scholarship or an Award of Excellence. These scholarships would go to good students, students who are leaders in their high schools, said WKU President Gary Ransdell. However, we have limited capacity to award academic scholarships and we often run out of scholarship money before we get to these students. In one gift, Mary Hutto has provided a permanent source of scholarship funding for these worthy students. Hutto was a retired school teacher, a 1927 WKU alumnae and a Bowling Green native. She was noted for her frugal lifestyle and penchant for saving. She was born Aug. 6, 1905, in Bowling Green. After graduating from Western with a degree in education, she took a teaching job in Florida where she met her husband, H.W. Hutto, a Maytag dealer in Stuart, Fla. He was killed in a car accident in 1953 and Mary Hutto took over as the Maytag dealer for a short time. Hutto returned to Bowling Green and managed a boarding-apartment house her parents had purchased. Most of the borders were Western Kentucky University students. After retirement, and with the onset of physical disabilities, she returned to Florida where she lived until her death. Ron Beck, a former development director at Western, characterized Hutto as a very practical, very disciplined lady. As with many people who grew up in the Depression era, she was instilled with the savings spirit. She lived a modest lifestyle and saved everything she could. Beck said she had a fondness for Western, Bowling Green and Kentucky that stemmed from growing up in Bowling Green.