University of Arkansas alumnae and sisters Agnes Lytton, Mary Sue and Betty Lynn Reagan have designated an estate gift to the university Libraries valued at more than $1.2 million.
The sisters were born and raised in northwest Arkansas. The UA said it will use the money to buy library materials.
The University Libraries’ Special Collections Department began archiving the Reagan family's papers in 1988. The collection includes essays, photographs, correspondence, clippings, a scrapbook and the Mary Sue Reagan Political Collection.
"The Reagan sisters were some of my first friends when I moved to Arkansas in 2000," Carolyn Henderson Allen, dean of University Libraries, said in a news release. "I found them to be charming, interesting gentlewomen who could talk on everything from politics and history to gardening and food. They were fun to be around, and they were curious about everything in the world. They were voracious readers, wonderful conversationalists and they were interested in all aspects of the university, not just the libraries."
The oldest of the three siblings, Agnes Lytton Reagan, was a 1935 graduate of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and received a degree in mathematics.
Her sisters, Mary Sue and Betty Lynn, both earned bachelor of arts degrees in history from Fulbright College in 1942 and 1945, respectively.
The UA said the sisters were proponents of teaching Arkansas history and known for carefully grading their students' work. The Rogers School District named an elementary school for Mary Sue and Betty Lynn in 1989.
