March 28, 2002

Contact: John Scarffe, KU Endowment Association, (785) 832-7336.

$1.5 million bequest from former Kansas City writer benefits KU Medical Center

LAWRENCE -- A late writer for the Kansas City Star and Vogue magazine has left $1.5 million for the University of Kansas Medical Center, KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway announced today.

Jessie Hodges Benton's gift to the Kansas University Endowment Association will support the research and treatment of deafness and blindness, as well as a new professorship. The longtime Kansas City, Mo., resident had a lifelong interest in both problems because of the experiences of her brother, who became deaf as a baby, and her stepmother, who became blind later in life.

About $1 million of Benton's bequest established the Frank and Jessie McKoin Hodges Memorial Fund for the Department of Hearing and Speech in memory of her parents. The remainder of the gift established the Eunice M. Hodges Memorial Fund in the Department of Ophthalmology in memory of her stepmother.

Her gift counts toward the $500 million goal of KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history.

"These gifts from Mrs. Benton's estate are wonderful memorials to her family members," Hemenway said. "They will support research that benefits both children and adults who face impairment of the precious senses of hearing and sight."

Of the gift for hearing and speech, $500,000 will support the Frank and Jessie McKoin Hodges Professorship. The interest earned on the fund will be eligible for matching support through the Kansas Partnership for Faculty of Distinction program.

The remainder of the gift for hearing and speech will help faculty members devise new ways to improve the communications skills of deaf and hard-of-hearing children. The gift also will support research on the nature, causes, identification and treatment of pediatric hearing disorders.

Benton's brother, the late Frank Hodges Jr., became deaf in infancy after contracting spinal meningitis. He learned to lip-read and speak through intensive efforts by his parents, especially his mother. He earned an engineering degree at the University of Missouri and became a successful businessman in Johnson County, Kan.

Her brother also influenced a neighbor, Dr. June Miller, who became the first chair of the Department of Hearing and Speech at the KU Medical Center and led the department for 34 years. Frances Hodges Robertson, Benton's niece and daughter of Frank Hodges Jr., said her family's personal relationship with Miller, in turn, strengthened Benton's desire to assist the hearing and speech department.

In the Department of Ophthalmology, her gift will support research on two of the major causes of blindness: glaucoma and macular degeneration. Her stepmother suffered from both and was a longtime patient and supporter of the department.

Benton, who died in 2000, was a staff member at the Kansas City Star and at Vogue magazine in New York City. She was born and raised in Olathe and graduated from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass. She was married to the late William Benton.

KU Endowment is conducting KU First on behalf of KU through 2004 to raise funds for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, capital projects and program support. KU Endowment is an independent, non-profit organization serving as the official fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU.

Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university and one of the largest.