Shortly before she died last year, the heir to the Cannon Mills textile fortune changed her will and made one final bequest: a $1 million pledge to the Tryon Palace Commission.

The state board helps oversee the state-owned Tryon Palace Historic Sites and Gardens in New Bern, site of the first permanent capitol of colonial North Carolina and home to the royal governor.

Hayes filed her will last February in Cabarrus County Courthouse and added the codicil in May. She died in August; she was 91.

More than 600 items from her estate will be auctioned starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at a hotel in Charlotte.

The Tryon Palace money will help build a $60 million historical education center at the facility, palace Director Kay Williams said.

The gateway in the new building will be named for Hayes' parents, textile magnate Charles A. Cannon and his wife, Ruth, and will feature information about the family's philanthropy. In the 1930s and 1940s, Ruth Cannon helped start the reconstruction of the palace, which had burned in 1798.

Williams had discussed a donation with Hayes for several years. Construction on the education center will begin in June, and it should open in April 2010 in time for New Bern's tricentennial.

"She agreed the project was valuable and wanted to do something to honor her parents' involvement," Williams said. "In a way ... (the bequest) is a fitting memorial to her as well. It's a gift to history in North Carolina, her parents and a gift for education."

Hayes' son, U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes, agreed. The Concord Republican said his mother was keenly aware of her family's philanthropic tradition, and she wanted to continue their legacy.

His mother's will also shed light on the range of her philanthropy, as it directed that the balance of several outstanding pledges be paid. Pledges included $3.5 million to UNC-Charlotte, $1million each to Davidson College and Queens University, $500,000 to the Blowing Rock Community Center and $600,000 for the Jeff Gordon Children's Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast in Concord.

She also bequeathed $200,000 for a scholarship fund at Cannon School, an independent school in Concord. She forgave the debt on the 2005 sale of a Beechcraft Baron airplane to her nephew, William Cannon Jr.

And she left her Blowing Rock property, worth an estimated $2.2 million, to the Appalachian State University Foundation.

She gave her Concord home to the Cannon Foundation. The house, valued at $413,170 according to her estate inventory, was built in 1907 and will serve as the foundation's new home, Executive Director Frank Davis said.

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