VALDOSTA — A Valdosta woman’s legacy keeps giving and giving.
Two weeks after giving the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra a half-million dollars, the estate of Leona Strickland Hudson gave the same amount Monday to the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts.
Representing the Hudson estate, Valdosta attorney Wade H. Coleman presented a check for $500,000 to the arts center board Monday evening.
“It sure is fun to give money away,” Coleman said in presenting the check, to which one board member was heard to respond, “It’s fun to receive it.”
The donation will go to an endowment which will allow the center to use a percentage in the tens of thousands of dollars annually to fund various programs and projects.
“Endowment funds are designed to ensure future stability of an organization,” notes Cheryl Oliver, the center’s executive director. “Leona’s generosity gives us a huge boost in that direction.”
In addition to the $500,000, Hudson also donated several pieces of silver, porcelain, cut-glass, and china to the center. An auction of these items will be held Oct. 3 with the proceeds going to the arts center.
To honor Hudson, the arts center is naming its pottery workshop/classroom facility for her and her husband, Dugald Hudson. All of the arts center’s October events will also be named in Leona Strickland Hudson’s honor, said Bob Harrison, the arts center’s board president.
The arts center presentation came a couple weeks after Wade Coleman made a similar presentation to the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra. In addition to a combined $1 million going to the arts center and the VSO, Coleman has also been representing Hudson to several other area organizations.
The Hudson estate has given $130,000 to hospice, $100,000 to the local Boys & Girls Club, approximately $100,000 to the local Boys Scouts, and about $75,000 to the Dr. Zaccari lecture series, with more presentations expected, Coleman said.
Born May 2, 1920, in a house on North Patterson Street, Leona Strickland grew up in Valdosta, the daughter of Will Strickland, a local banker who also owned Strickland Hardware Company, and Rosa Strickland.
In 1945, Leona Strickland married Lt. Dugald Walker Hudson of Greenville, S.C. A valedictorian and World War II veteran, an infantry officer then a judge advocate officer who debriefed Nazi leaders after the war, Hudson took his new bride for three years to live in post-war Germany. They lived in many places around the world, before returning to the States, specifically Atlanta, where he joined the faculty of Georgia State University. In Atlanta, she followed in the tradition of her father, working in a bank.
In 2006, Dugald Hudson died, and Leona Strickland Hudson returned to her hometown of Valdosta.
The Hudsons lived modestly. She was driving an 11-year-old Chevrolet at the time of her death. They had no children and no close relatives. In her will, she bequeathed her entire estate to charitable organizations.
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Related Photos
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Wade Coleman, center, presents a $500,000 check for the Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts to Bob Harrison, board president, and Cheryl Oliver, executive director, Monday evening.
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The estate of Dugald and Leona Hudson has left nearly $1.5 million to area organizations so far.
Discussion
Donor gives big
Arts center receives $500,000 donation
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