Did Donald Trump payoff Annabell Hill’s family farm?
Well, sort of…
The following story has been offered up as proof of Donald Trump’s generosity:
In 1986, Trump prevented the foreclosure of Annabell Hill’s family farm after her husband committed suicide. Trump personally phoned the auction to stop the sale of her home and offered the widow money. Trump decided to take action after he saw Hill’s pleas for help in news reports.
Here is the full story:
Annabel Hill, was indeed, fighting to keep her family’s farm in Waynesboro, Georgia. With approximate $300,000 of debt on the property, her husband committed suicide in hopes that his life insurance policy would pay off the balance.
Accounts differ on whether or not his insurance company paid Mrs. Hill anything. Typically, most life insurance companies will not settle a claim where the cause of death is suicide, but again, reports differ.
Either from the proceeds of the insurance policy, or by other means, The Hills were able to raise a portion of the funds, bringing the amount down to $187,000.
That’s when Atlanta businessman Frank Argenbright Jr. (who had already helped another family in a similar situation) held a press conference for the Hills, which gained national attention, including that of Ivana Trump. It was she, that told her husband that he should get involved.
Trump worked with Argenbright to raise the remaining $187,000. Donations came from several sources, including New York disc jockey Don Imus, who raised somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000.
This brought the total down to $78,000.
Trump paid approimately half himself (somewhere between $39,000-$46,000) and Tom McKamy, a wealthy Texas farmer, pitched in the rest.
As to whether these donations paid off the entire farm, or just part of it, again, reports vary. The farm was originally on 1,300 acres; some of the land was sold off, bringing that number down to 715 acres. Some accounts show that in the end, the Hill family retained only 326 acres.
A few days before Christmas of that same year, Trump held a “burn the mortgage” event at Trump Tower, where he flew the Hill Family up to NYC. He also invite the media, both print and TV. He burned a stack of papers that were merely symbolic, not the actual mortgage papers.
So, did Donald Trump actually payoff Annabell Hill’s family farm?
It seems he was one of many players involved in assisting this family, thanks largely to Frank Argenbright’s press conference, and Ivana Trump bringing the matter to Trump’s attention.