Peffley Family Association Database

The Peffley Family Association

BIOGRAPHY

Regina Peffly

Long Beach, Los Angeles California, Independent Press-Telegram,
Page A-2, April 28, 1970
'Poor' Woman Leaves Fortune to Blacks

An 84 year-old Detroit white woman described by a former roommate as too miserly to pay $125 for needed glasses - has left almost $250,000 to the United Negro College Fund.

The donor, Mrs. Regina M. Peffly, died Jan. 4 in her small rented flat. Her will was admitted to probate Monday. Mrs. Cressey Wilson, 60, who used to live with her, said Mrs. Peffly had planned to give her money to the fund because "she said the Negroes had always been mistreated."

Acquaintances were amazed to learn of her wealth. Her stockbroker, Richard Cleary, said she made the money by playing "with those little, cheap speculative stocks and she frequently bought and sold."

United Negro College Fund uses its funds to help students at 36 predominantly Negro colleges in the South.

Mrs. Wilson, who said she lived for seven years with Mrs. Peffly, said her former roommate ate cheaply on such foods as beans and hamburger. She was living alone when she died. "She called me the day before she died," Mrs. Wilson said," because her landlady had given her notice to move. I think she wanted to ask me if she could move back In, But I was going to say no."

Mrs. Peffly cashed in her stocks in 1967 and put the money in 11 savings accounts.

Wayne County public administrator Kenneth H. Hylton said: "I was told she used to sit around and tell her friends she was worth a quarter of a million and they all thought she was crazy. They'd say: "Sure, we all have a quarter of a million.'

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