WAYNESBORO, Ga. -- The widow of a farmer who killed himself minutes before his farm was to go on the auction block got some help from an unexpected source -- New York real estate tycoon Donald Trump.
The land that put Leonard Hill III in debt and drove him to suicide last February was again scheduled to be sold at a courthouse auction Tuesday but the sale was delayed.
Hill's wife, Annabel, 67, said Trump intervened.
'Last night, when he called, my heart went pitter-patter,' she said. 'He assured me the land would be mine.'
The woman had made a tearful plea for help at a news conference last week and Trump saw her on a television newscast.
'This is very difficult,' Annabel Hill said. 'A suicide in your family is almost more than you can stand because you look back and say, 'What more could I have done to help save this land?''
Atlanta businessman Frank Argenbright, who recently helped another indebted Georgia farmer save his land, signed a 30-day option on the Hill land Tuesday to give Trump time to come up with a plan to save the farm.
'He has made a substantial contribution and has agreed to work with us,' Argenbright said. 'Trump is holding a press conference in the Trump Tower in New York on Thursday to announce his plans for saving her farm.'
Trump could not be reached for comment.
Hill's husband shot himself the day his farm was to be auctioned in February. His suicide halted that sale, but his insurance policy was not enough to pay off the farm's debts. '(The land) was very dear to my husband because it had been in his family so long,' she said. 'He felt h.'.-#QUDIKAoUB;k+M(q** c40/QCH,zCu
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