NEW YORK -- The widow of Yankee immortal Lou Gehrig gave his trophies, photographs and awards to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., under terms of her will filed Thursday in Surrogates Court.
Eleanor T. Gehrig, of New York, died at the age of 79 March 6, leaving an estate estimated at $400,000.
Under terms of a seven-page will dated last July 8, the Baseball Hall of Fame was left a diamond bracelet, trophies used in the Gehrig biographical motion picture 'Pride of the Yankees,' and World Series awards and trophies presented to Gehrig along with papers and photographs.
Mrs. Gehrig left bequests totaling $220,000 to four people.
Lillian Esseltyn of Claverack, N.Y., widow of Dr. Caldwell Esseltyn who treated Gehrig during his illness, was left $100,000 and her lawyer George Pollack of Atlantic Beach, N.Y., was left $100,000.
Howard Thompson of New York, a friend, and Dr. George Hyman of New York, her personal physician, were each left $10,000.
The rest of the estate, following debts and administrative costs, was left to the Caldwell B. Esseltyn Foundation in Claverack, N.Y., and Presbyterian Hospital in New York for research into amyotropic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative ailment that gradually destroy's a person's muscles and is commonly known as 'Lou Gehrig Disease.'
Gehrig died at the age of 37 on June 2, 1941, of the disease.
