Posted on 08/22/2015 6:51:06 AM PDT by conservativejoy
It was September 1986, and Annabel Hill, 66, was facing an auction where she would lose the farm that had been in her family for five generations.
Hill’s husband, Lenard, had committed suicide eight months earlier, 20 minutes before a scheduled auction, in a last-ditch attempt to save his property with life insurance money. The life insurance money wasn’t enough, covering only $175,000 of debts than ran in excess of $300,000, from two years of a drought that Hill said had ruined their livelihood. Even when several hundred acres of the 1,300-acre Waynesboro, Georgia, farm were sold, the now-widowed Annabel still found herself deep in debt and facing an auction.
That’s when real estate tycoon Donald Trump and a series of other personalities stepped in to help save Hill’s farm.
The push to save Hill’s farm began with Frank Argenbright, a well-regarded Atlanta businessman. Argenbright had helped another farmer keep his land, according to reports. Argenbright asked Hill to appear at a news conference with him in the city. That news conference made its way onto NBC’s Nightly News and was watched Trump.
“I saw a story on the news about Annabel Hill, who’d hit bottom,” The Donald writes in his book The America We Deserve.
“It was a very sad situation, and I was moved,” Trump writes in The Art of the Deal. “Here were people who’d worked very hard and honestly all their lives, only to see it all crumble before them. To me, it just seemed wrong.”
Trump reached out to Argenbright, who was able to put Trump in touch with bank that held Hill’s mortgage.
“The next morning, I called and got some vice president on the line,” writes Trump. “I explained that I was a businessman from New York, and that I was interested in helping Mrs. Hill. He told me he was sorry, but that it was too late. They were going to auction off the farm, he said, and ‘nothing or no one is going to stop it.’”
It was then, Trump claims, he decided to talk tough to the banker.
“That really got me going,” he writes. “I said to the guy: ‘You listen to me. If you do foreclose, I’ll personally bring a lawsuit for murder against you and your bank, on the grounds that you harassed Mrs. Hill’s husband to his death.’ All of a sudden the bank officer sounded very nervous and said he’d get right back to me. Sometimes it pays to be a little wild.”
“An hour later I got a call back from the banker, and he said, ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to work it out, Mr. Trump.’”
At a press conference at the entrance to the Burke County Courthouse where the foreclosure sale was set to begin, Argenbright and members of the Hill family discussed their plan to save the farm. Neighbors and friends of the Hills, who had planned to console the family after their sale, were instead “stunned” with the news of a rescue plan, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Argenbright and Trump had put up the money with Federal Land Bank that morning for a 30-day option to purchase the farmland. The auction was called off less than two hours before it was to begin.
“It was a business decision that waiting a month doesn’t put the bank in any worse position, and [the earnest money shows] that this is no sham,” the bank’s manager said. “In this case, there was a lot of cooperation and effort on their part. We don’t always get that in foreclosure cases.”
Annabel Hill told the media her husband “would be overjoyed with the idea that the land will be saved. Truly, I don’t believe he will have died in vain, because one of these days this land will be coming back to the Hill family, and crops will be raised on it again.”
During the 30-day option period, a donation drive to collect the $187,000 necessary to pay the debt was launched. It instantly took off, thanks in no small part to Trump’s celebrity and his connections.
“By the end of the week, we’d raised $40,000. [Don] Imus alone raised almost $20,000 by appealing to his listeners,” writes Trump in The Art of the Deal. After a successful swarm of donations the debt still stood at $78,000.
That was when Trump offered to help pay half and Dallas farmer and landowner Tom McKamy matched Trump’s offer.
“Financially this was obviously no big deal,” writes Trump in The America We Deserve. “But in human terms, there aren’t words to express what Annabel Hill gave to me. Most of us have a few things in life we would never give back, no matter what. Helping Annabel is that way for me.”
That Christmas, at the atrium of the Trump Tower, The Donald and Annabel Hill, flanked by the media and others who had donated, burned Hill’s mortgage.
“It feels wonderful, it really does — especially at this time of the year,” Hill said. ‘I’m just so grateful to these men. It’s really hard with the main person in your family gone. This kind of eases the ache a little bit.”
”I never gave up hope. Farmers don’t ever give up hope,” Mrs. Hill added.
“It was unreal, almost like my mom was Cinderella,” Hill’s daughter Betsy told BuzzFeed News. “We couldn’t believe that we were going up to New York to actually meet Donald Trump in person and sit down and have a meal with him. He was just precious to help save our farm. It was just like we couldn’t believe it.”
“It’s nice to see that other side of a big real estate, investor and businessman to want to help such small, little unknown people,” she added.
At the Christmas event, Trump, struck a similar chord to what he says today.
“We give a lot of money to foreign countries that don’t give a damn about us, but we don’t help the American farmers,” Trump said.
Annabel Hill passed away at the age of 91 in 2011. She said about the motives of Trump’s charity, “the only way I can explain it was God touched his heart.”
Trump kept in touch with Hill for a while after the mortgage burning.
“I would see Annabel, whether it was in church or whether, you know, out in the community and she was always saying, ‘Well, you know I’m praying for Mr. Trump, I am praying for Mr. Trump,’” Marty Baker, a pastor at the local church, told BuzzFeed News. “And she just, you know, really stayed in contact with him some and continually just prayed for him.”
“I saw a side of him that was very caring, very sincere,” Argenbright told Lost Tycoon author Henry Hurt in his book.
“He would call her up and check on her [even after the publicity died out]. There was no feeling of, ‘well, Frank, okay, you’ve done the deal. Annabel’s gone. The publicity is over with. There’s no benefit to Donald Trump now.’ Not any of that ever.”
The Hills, according to Annabel’s son, Jim, who spoke with BuzzFeed News by phone, had never heard of Trump before he called up their family.
“It was a small Southern town,” Jim Hill said.
Jim Hill said that after their farm was saved, the family became the unofficial spokespeople for farmers losing their lands to banks in foreclosure.
“She sort of kind of became the spokesperson of the entire group of farmers that committed suicide or were losing their properties or losing the remainder of their properties,” he said.
Leonard Hill, Annabel’s son, who currently lives on the farm, says the family is deeply indebted to Trump.
“I’ve got three daughters and it allowed them to grow up on the farm,” Leonard Hill told BuzzFeed News. “We have been very blessed, very blessed.”
“My wife was pregnant with our youngest daughter when Mr. Trump came into the picture, and she grew up and decided to be a lawyer and went to the Catholic law school in Washington, D.C., and probably would not have been able to do that without Mr. Trump,” he stated.
“We about lost our names, I wouldn’t even know who I was. It was a tremendous blessing.”
I also don't like the blind church like feeling of preaching past deeds while forgetting more recent ideas of Trumps which not only show he's willing to infringe on property rights.
... uh.... where's the rest of the sentence ?
It's like nobody wants to see the rotten parts of the fruit and instead they're trying to polish the small bit that doesn't have worms then display it as a prize winner i.e. "THIS IS EXACTLY WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE FOR HIM HE'S SO PERFECT"
Where did anyone say they were going to vote for him BASED on this one thing ? I have only noted that the 'article' about TRUMP is true.
So you're okay with the government coming to you home of many years, deciding how much your home is worth and kicking you out?
No, but at least we have a law saying they must PAY you for taking it. One the other end of the scales, if it weren't for I.D. laws, the railroads would probably have never been completed. We would be living in a third world type country. Is that what you prefer ?
Property rights do not matter to Trump but so is okay to take peoples property as long as the Government is saying it is okay.
Once again, if he did so, he had to pay for it (and usually above market value). How many times did he do this and to who ?
A bit of information never hurt anyone and a conversation with someone doesn't make it ignorant. In fact it's lacking ignorance that brought me into that conversation as it is a silly thing with Trump.
I find your statement a bit hard to parse.
Texas questioned something, got jumped by a lot of people, including you come to think of it.
Again, it was more about the WAY it was done, than the issue itself. When did either of you ASK if others were aware of the TRUMP/ID issue or even provide a reference to the actual case(s) that occurred ?
You want to 'debate' something, but you aren't doing it in a debate format. You are only criticizing and making huge assumptions about other people's 'thoughts'.
You have no idea if any of the posters on this thread are going to vote for TRUMP mainly because you have not even asked.
Defend Trump at all costs!
As I stated earlier, there is a thread where CRUZ is being praised for some of his 'acts'. Did you get on that thread and tell everyone how ignorant they were for believing in CRUZ and blindly supporting him ?
Whose property and what did he 'take' it for ?
I assume you don't seem to mind using the Interstate Highway System, yet there was plenty of Imminent Domain used to get the land for the highway to be built on.
Since you have not provided any ‘proof’ of your claim that Trump STOLE land from people using ID laws, I have researched it myself.
In the two cases where TRUMP tried to buy property from land owners, Both tried to scam him for big bucks and in both cases, Trump was unsuccessful in purchasing the property.
You must have some great stories, Miss M.
Was it being done legally ?
If not, then you could care less about property rights and instead are okay with Trump strong arming by use of government.
I think it depends on the case and whether the property owner is trying to rip off the developer, but this kind of thing happens all the time and has for hundreds of years. Besides, he lost.
No. I am saying that claims that he STOLE the land from the lady are not true. As you say, he lost.
You mention Trump offered her $1 million and she wouldn't take it. Sounds like a good deal. Why didn't she take it ?
So, your objection to Trump is that he used the government to try and achieve his goal ?
You mean like the $24 the government offered the Indians for Manhattan ?
Rules for radicals crap right there, there was no actual point to it.
Her property she refused to sell her right. Trump got the city to use eminent domain, condemning her house because she would not move and offering 251k and a 90 day eviction notice.A widows home almost taken for less than a quarter of its worth and the elderly window nearly kicked to the street.
He used these same tactics all throughout Atlantic City and to say that any of this is right is to basically say mob methods and theft is okay.
I suppose you’re going to just continue defending til your dying breath, but it’s wrong. Trump was wrong and to this day as far as I know, he’s still okay with this method of bullying deals down the pipe for his own gains.
This is a classic...
“It was then, Trump claims, he decided to talk tough to the banker.
“That really got me going,†he writes. “I said to the guy: ‘You listen to me. If you do foreclose, I’ll personally bring a lawsuit for murder against you and your bank, on the grounds that you harassed Mrs. Hill’s husband to his death.’ “
Trump at times reminds me of me....LOL!
Trump is a good guy. Unfortunately the (hopefully) dwindling numbers of TDS-sufferers will always focus upon what they perceive as ‘negatives’ in order to tear down Trump, and I doubt that their motives are purely political based upon their own perceived conservative purity.
I think they want to tear Trump down because he has accomplished things in his life, good things, honorable things, that they themselves have failed to do and it has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with the depth of his character which stands in sharp contrast to their own.
The Establishment Republicans (read all the leaders) and Rove will flood FR with anti-Trump posters before this is over. There are also some here red with envy, and more than a few liberals too.
The Roves and Murdochs can’t believe their money won’t work this time. F em!
Aside from the point that your facts are wrong and twisted, I can see that your issue to stand and die on in this election is eminent domain. That’s your right.
It’s unfortunate, with illegal aliens, open border, bad economy, no jobs, a government that has sold us out and a world full of terrorists that you have chosen this.
It is your right. Good luck finding a candidate that is against eminent domain. It is a factor in the constitution you know.
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