Donor Stories

Thank you to all our Planned Giving Donors for Investing in the Future of Our Faith. Here are a few of their stories:

Agnes A. Guerin

In 1929, Messrs. Flagg and Redfern of Farmers' Union Co-Operative Royalty Company began trading Co-Op Certificates to Western Oklahoma farmers in exchange for mineral rights on 40-acre tracts of land. In very short order, Farmers' Union had accumulated 43,000 mineral acres from farmers willing to gamble that the Oklahoma oil boom would eventually find its way to the Co-Op lands and pay its members a handsome dividend.

Agnes A. Guerin, a Co-Op member, included the transfer of two shares of Farmers' Union to the Carmelite Sisters as part of her Last Will and Testament in 1935. At the time of Agnes Guerin's death in 1940, the two shares of Farmers' Union were worth little more than the paper upon which they were printed. In 1957, the two shares were finally transfered to their intended owner - the Carmelite Sisters. Shortly thereafter, knowledge of the shares and the certificate itself seemed to have vanished.

48 years later, a Certificate bearing the name of the Carmelite Sisters as owners of two shares of Farmers' Union resurfaced as part of a routine audit. Years without knowledge of ownership added up to accrued dividends and capital appreciation which would yield a significant windfall for the Carmelite Sisters - who had been seeking a resource to energize the growth of the Carmelite Sisters and Villa Teresa Endowments.

Planned Giving on the part of Agnes Guerin, the re-discovery of a stock certificate after half a century and strong faith on the part of the Carmelite Sisters resulted in an answer to the prayers of a Religious Order and a Catholic school. Planned Giving can make a difference in the life of others, even if it is years later.

The Catholic Foundation
7501 N.W. Expressway
Oklahoma City, OK 73123
405-721-4115 | Fax: 405-721-4114
E-mail: tcasso@catharchdioceseokc.org

Planned Giving content and GiftTree® copyrighted © 2008 VirtualGiving.