Dorothy Clarke Patterson ($225 million)

The Longboat Key (Fla.) resident died in 2007, leaving her money to the small, $3 million family foundation she created in 1997 after her husband, James, died in 1992. The foundation expects to use the unrestricted bequest to reshape its mission, which previously focused on modest grants to Sarasota-area charities, such as Goodwill Industries, the All Faiths Food Bank, and Habitat for Humanity. Patterson was vice-president and assistant managing editor of The New York Daily News and a descendant of Chicago newspaper giant Joseph Medill.

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