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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowRuth Lilly, a prolific philanthropist and the last surviving great-grandchild of pharmaceutical magnate Eli Lilly, has
died at age 94.
A family spokesman says Lilly died Wednesday in Indianapolis.
Over the course of her
life, she gave away much of her inheritance from the Eli Lilly and Co. fortune. Court documents showed in 2002 that Lilly
had bequeathed nearly $500 million to charitable and arts-related groups.
That included an estimated $100 million
to the influential literary magazine "Poetry."
A family statement released Thursday said that during
her later years Lilly’s philanthropy widened her circle of contacts and interests and her life "became much more interesting
and rewarding."
Lilly was married for more than 40 years but her marriage ended in divorce, with no children.
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