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Though she had been lonely and unloved in life, more than 200 people came forward after her death to claim her $5,000,000 fortune. Two men insisted that they were her illegitimate sons. Manhattan courts spent almost a year and a half in sorting out improper claims and weighing evidence. To disprove the claims, lawyers produced a family tree on a chart 32 feet long. Last week her estate was award ed to her cousin, Hollis Gale, her closest of kin, and one of the few people who had ever tried to befriend her.
Gale is a quiet, 58-year-old sales executive, who was in China as a Red Cross director in 1940, and was captured by the Japanese during World War II. After inheriting Mary's long-hoarded money, he said he hoped with it "in some small way" to help improve U.S. foreign relations. He also resolved to erect a monument on the grave of the recluse's mother. Unforgiving Mary Bullock Powers had left it unmarked for 37 years.