UK HealthCare

Longtime UK Clinical Lab Employee Leaves Estate to Kentucky Children's Hospital

photo of woman in red dress
Maquies Bentley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 13, 2016) – She was known for her kind disposition, being an avid Elvis fan and her trademark long black hair always pinned in bun on top of her head with a bow matching the outfit she was wearing that day. 

Maquies Bentley was a dedicated, loyal and exemplary employee at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine for 27 years.  When she passed away in 2015, she continued to give back to UK by leaving her entire estate to the Kentucky Children’s Hospital.

A former staff support associate in the Pathology/Clinical Lab department, Bentley is remembered by co-workers as being soft-spoken and well-liked by all who knew her. On Tuesday, the UK Board of Trustees is slated to approve a small land transfer that was part of the estate to the estate’s administrator.  In all, Bentley, a native of Hindman in Eastern Kentucky, left assets totaling about $290,000 to the children’s hospital.

Bentley always walked to work from her apartment near campus and, according to her former supervisor Karen Lindsey, never missed a single day until she fell and broke her hip and then had to retire.

“Maquies greeted everyone professionally,” recalled Sandra Jaros, pathology administrator and assistant dean for administration in the UK College of Medicine. “She was generous with her time to anyone who stopped by or called regarding their patient’s diagnosis or where in the process their labs were and when they could expect a diagnosis.”

She also loved gardening and spending time in Eastern Kentucky.

“We are very grateful for Ms. Bentley’s generous gift,” said Dr. Carmel Wallace, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at UK and physician-in-chief at Kentucky Children’s Hospital. “Her bequest is very special knowing that someone who quietly devoted so much of her professional life to UK chose KCH in continuing her legacy of generosity.”