Dorothy Louise Cortright of Rolling Fork, Miss., taught at Power Elementary School in Jackson for more than 40 years. Her home was a small apartment in Magnolia Towers on North State Street. The yellowed pages of her scrapbook, where she had carefully pasted notes from students, class photos and programs from school productions, testify to a lifetime devoted to education.

Although she lived modestly on a teacher's salary, it was discovered after her death last year, at the age of 89, that her estate was worth almost a half million dollars.

Requesting that the money be used to endow scholarships for students with financial need, Cortright named Millsaps College as her sole beneficiary. Combined with her previous gifts to Millsaps, she contributed $517,000 in scholarships to the Jackson college.

"It's inspiring to receive a gift from someone with such love for educating," said Millsaps President Frances Lucas-Tauchar. "By making it possible for students with financial need to receive an education of the highest quality, Miss Cortright has further sustained her lifelong commitment to learning."

Based on her instructions, revenue from Cortright's estate has been equally divided between two need-based scholarships established in memory of her mother and father. With this gift, Cortright has insured that students will continue to benefit from her love of teaching and generosity of spirit.

During her career, Cortright touched the lives of more than 1,500 boys and girls, many of whom were the children of faculty and staff at Millsaps or who later enrolled at Millsaps. Entries in her diary reveal her love of teaching and children. She saved photos of her students dressed in serapes and sombreros for their study of Mexico and of children learning to hula in leis and grass skirts while studying customs and culture in Hawaii.

Born in 1912, Cortright was the only child of Ira Sherman Cortright and Ella Lee Williams Cortright. After an elementary education that began in a three-room schoolhouse, Cortright fulfilled her dream of becoming a teacher, earning bachelor's and master's degrees in education.

After her mother's death in 1990, Cortright discussed her estate plans with a cousin, Edith Cortright Schimmel, who suggested establishing a scholarship at Millsaps. Cortright loved the idea. To implement the plan, she called upon Jack Woodward, an old friend and a parent of three former students. As dean of financial aid, Woodward oversaw the establishment in 1991 of the Ira Sherman Cortright Endowed Scholarship Fund and the Ella Lee Williams Cortright Endowed Scholarship Fund. In 1999, Cortright created the Louise Vivian Cortright Endowed Scholarship Fund in memory of her aunt, who was also a teacher.

"Miss Cortright developed a wonderful relationship with Millsaps over the years as she taught many of the children of our faculty and staff," said Jack Woodward. "Through this relationship, she created several scholarship programs in order to assist students who had a financial need. She was a true friend of education at Millsaps College."