Wis. Woman Leaves Former High School Over $1 Million of Her Estate After Death

A high school in Wisconsin got a major financial surprise thanks to a former student.

Milly Chapman, who was previously known as Millie Lindahl, donated her estate after her death to the Osceola High School — 78 years after she graduated as part of the educational institution’s class of 1947, according to KARE 11.

Superintendent Becky Styles told the outlet that she got an email last summer about how Chapman wanted to leave $1.8 million, with more to come, to her alma mater following her 2021 death.

“It was like, wait a minute, alarm bells,” Styles told KARE 11, adding: “This doesn’t happen in public schools very often where someone’s like, ‘Hey, here, here we have this for you.’ ”

The school administrator said she and others were “absolutely dumbfounded” by the financial amount provided to them, so they did a deep dive to uncover who exactly Chapman was.

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By using yearbooks, Styles and others discovered that Chapman was a cheerleader, was involved in the drama club and was also part of the yearbook committee and the school newspaper.

Still, as they questioned of Chapman, “When did she graduate, where did she go to school and then where did she end up,” the group discovered, “There wasn’t a lot there.”

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Once the final amount left by Chapman is determined after her estate is settled, Superintendent Styles told KARE 11 that the school has ideas for how to best utilize they money, including creating communal student spaces or a performance center named after the former student.

As for why she believes Chapman left the large amount of money to her high school, Styles explained to the outlet, “I think it was a place where she found herself where she could be who she wanted to be.”

“It was one of the happiest times of her life, and that’s what she held on to,” she continued of Chapman, adding that she believes Osceola High School “was a place that brought her great happiness.”