DEAD WOMAN’S BITTERNESS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1231, 9 April 1914, Page 4

DEAD WOMAN’S BITTERNESS.

VENOM SHOWN IN WILL

Bitterness harboured against her relatives during the years in which she had saved more than ,£5,000 from her salary as school teacher, caused Miss Mary V. McCusker, who died iu New York on September 17th, 1913, to direct that no blood relations attend her funeral and to give her estate to charity, her lawyer and real estate adviser. Her will, filed recently lor probate, was largely devoted (0 praise of John Rooney, an attorney, and to paragraphs cutting off her relatives.

“It is my positive command,” said Miss McCusker in her will, “that my esteemed friend and counsellor, John Rooney, take charge of my remains, make all funeral arrangements, and have a mass of requiem sung. I do not wish that any of my relatives have any charge of my body after death. It is my wish that none of the relatives of the McCusker side of my family have or receive any share iu my estate for the reason that my mother, my sister and myself have never been friendly with them, and have never exchanged visits.” Another paragraph directs that Mrs Margaret V. I. Ryan and her family “shall not have or receive any share whatsoever, for the reason of the unkind treatment of me while living with them and for the further reason that I was obliged to engage in litigation with Mrs Ryan and her daughter to recover money unlawfully taken from me.”

To a cousin is left ,£2O, the gift “being small became he has wasted two legacies received from other relatives iu dissipation, _ I have not seen or heard Irom him in many years.” the will continues, “and do not know whether he is dead or alive-” A cousin, not seen for 30 years by Miss McCusker, receives £ 2O , but “all other relatives, if they are alive, I have not heard from in many years. They never manifested any interest in me, or called upon me in sickness, or at any other time. They had no interest in me, nor I in them.” Twelve cousins are living who are not named in the will.