Funds will be invested in a permanent endowment at the Foundation
Paducah, KY, May 1 — The late Peggy and Fred Paxton, longtime Paducah residents and community leaders, have left a $10 million bequest to the Community Foundation of West Kentucky, announced Lee Emmons, Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation.
The bequest will be invested at the Foundation as a permanent endowment fund. Income from the fund will be distributed to charities similar to those supported by the Paxtons during their lifetimes and posthumously through previously established endowment funds.
The Paxtons’ son, The Rev. Richard Paxton, recently informed Foundation leadership of the special bequest. Paxton serves as trustee of the testamentary trust making the bequest and noted that the release of the funds is contingent upon final estate and inheritance tax approvals from both the Internal Revenue Service and the Kentucky Department of Revenue. The timing of these final approvals is unclear.
Specifically, the bequest states that the endowment is to be known as the Peggy and Fred Paxton Family Fund. The fund is to be used by the board of directors of the Community Foundation to support the Foundation itself, as well as the “same and like charitable, educational and religious organizations” the Paxtons supported during their lifetimes.
The bequest appoints certain heirs of Peggy and Fred to a donor advisory committee that will make recommendations regarding charities and the timing of payments from the fund.
Fred Paxton was chairman of the board of Paxton Media Group and served as president of the company, publisher of The Paducah Sun, and president of WPSD-TV in a business career that spanned almost 50 years. He also served as chairman of numerous civic, industry, community and educational organizations.
He served a four-year term as president of the NBC television affiliates board, a three-year term as president of Maximum Service Telecasters, and also served as president of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association.
The Paxtons were married for 51 years until Fred passed away in 2006.
Peggy Paxton, in her early years, was a homemaker and raised a family of four children. Later, she returned to school, earning a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Murray State University. She then worked for a number of years at West Kentucky Mental Health as a therapist.
Throughout their lives, Peggy and Fred were active in the community as volunteers and philanthropists. Together, they contributed substantially to a number of causes, including the engineering program at West Kentucky Community and Technical College and an earlier-established general endowment fund at the Community Foundation of West Kentucky. That fund continues to support several local charities through a program now known as The Peggy and Fred Paxton Challenge for Charities.
Shortly before Fred’s death, the couple established the McCracken County Community Career Endowment, an organization designed to promote career opportunities through counseling, mentoring and education assistance. Each year, outstanding high school students are chosen to participate in the Paxton Scholars program, receiving financial assistance as they pursue a college degree.
“The Paxton Scholars program was a favorite of both Mom and Dad,” Richard Paxton shared, “as they both felt so many young people from disadvantaged backgrounds could overcome many obstacles to success, simply by having educational opportunities that might not otherwise exist.”
Richard Paxton says he recalls fondly the day his father informed him of this bequest.
“Dad came into my office, sat down, and gave me the news. And I have to say he was just beaming with joy. I’ll never forget it,” Paxton said.
Paxton recalls that was his parents’ nature — fighting for disadvantaged, lost and impoverished persons.
“I keep an old email from my father, written about four months before his passing,” Paxton said. “In it, Dad was describing Mom’s and his motivation for founding the McCracken County Community Career Endowment. Dad’s email concluded with words I now consider sacred: ‘I don’t know how far all of this will go, but I prefer to light a candle rather than curse the darkness.’”