BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - The members at the defunct Avondale Presbyterian Church were worried about Bette Wilson after her husband, Ross, died. She was in her eighties, living alone in a tiny, dilapidated house across the street.

She had attended the church most Sundays for 50 years until the 16-member congregation disbanded in 2010. She liked wearing different hats. People called her "the hat lady."

When her microwave oven stopped working, the former church members didn't think she had enough money for a new appliance and they gave her the one from the shut-down church building. They had no idea that she was secretly a multi-millionaire.

Mrs. Wilson died on Nov. 20, 2012, at 81. When her will was probated, it was discovered that she had more than a dozen banking and investment accounts that totaled about $2.8 million. She had $1.5 million in a Morgan Stanley investment account, and the rest spread out in other accounts up to $250,000 each.

Mrs. Wilson had worked as a credit manager for 40 years at Pure Oil Co., and her husband had worked for decades as an airplane mechanic for Delta Airlines. They had built a two-bedroom, one-bathroom, 850-square-foot house on 47th Street in 1953 and lived in it the rest of their lives. They had no children.

About two years before she died, Mrs. Wilson stopped by the headquarters office of the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley in Hoover and told staff she wanted to put Living River, a church camp on the Cahaba River, in her will.

"She came into the office and said, 'I’m here to do this right - I want to leave Living River in my will,'" said Benga Harrison, director of development for Living River, the church camp on the Cahaba River. "No one knew she had the money she had."

At the time she died, the church staff at the presbytery believed that it may have inherited her small house, worth about $88,000, but likely not much more.

Mrs. Wilson's relatives included an uncle in his nineties, who was executor of the will, and cousins. The relatives, who also did not know she was wealthy, were unhappy with her will when they found out and delayed the probate process, but a settlement was finally worked out, Harrison said. None of the relatives were in financial need, Harrison said. "They’re all very well off themselves," she said.

The church got its share of the money, $2.52 million, last week.

The river camp has been in the planning stages for 12 years. The Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley, the regional governing body of the Presbyterian Church (USA), sold its 317-acre Covenant Mountain church camp in Springville in 2001 and used that money to purchase 437 acres along a four-mile stretch of the Cahaba River in Bibb and Shelby counties. The project has progressed slowly since then.

About $7.5 million had been raised and $4.5 million had been spent on developing the land, building a water tank, water lines, putting in roads and building a canoe launch on the Cahaba River. The canoe launch and take-out is already extensively used by the Cahaba River Society and the Nature Conservancy.

Living River's board of directors had previously decided that $2 million more needed to be raised before construction could start on the first youth cabins at the church camp. After receiving Mrs. Wilson's bequest, the board met on Thursday and voted to begin construction. "That means we can start building," Harrison said. "We’re very excited."

Plans call for building six buildings over the next year. That will include three guest cabins that can sleep 36 people each, with 18 people on each side so that church groups can separate girls and boys on summer camping trips. Those cabins should be ready by July. There will be a multi-purpose building with a dining and meeting facility, and that should be done by August. There will also be a staff cabin and caretaker's house.

The facility, owned and operated by the presbytery, will be open for rental by any group. "The presbytery is building it, but we’re hoping people will come out for all kinds of things," Harrison said. Living River has agreed to partner with Camp McDowell, the Episcopal Church camp, to help run an environmental camp for visiting school groups. The next phase of construction includes plans for adult lodges and a conference center. The camp will be known as Living River: A Retreat on the Cahaba, and the Living River Environmental Center.

The Rev. Robert Hay, associate executive presbyter, said that in 2007, a fundraising effort targeted at Presbyterian churches visited Avondale Presbyterian. At the time, there were only 18 members. “Eighteen elderly people gave us $25,000 – we were surprised and thrilled," Hay said. “Even though they were now elderly, the camping program had been a huge part of their lives and their children’s lives,” Harrison said.

After the church disbanded, they sold the building and donated the proceeds - another $300,000, Hay said. After paying bills, they donated what was left in the church account - another $34,000. Then Mrs. Wilson provided the most dramatic donation of all.

The river camp had been delayed for years by fundraising difficulties. Fundraising was halted or slowed down at times by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Birmingham hosting the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly in 2006, the 2008 economic recession and the 2011 tornadoes. The church diverted fundraising toward more urgent needs as they arose. "We couldn’t ask people for money when there were people out of homes," Harrison said. "We had to slow down."

The canoe launch at Living River church camp on the Cahaba River is already popular. Thanks to a donation from Bette Wilson, construction will now begin on buildings including youth cabins at the camp. (Photo courtesy of the Presbytery of Sheppards and Lapsley)

Now the project is finally full-speed ahead, thanks to the generosity of a thrifty woman who liked church hats, but few other extravagances. "Bette Wilson was very quiet, not pretentious at all," Harrison said. "She just never talked about her business ever."

Mrs. Wilson's only request of the Living River camp was that one day an appreciation plaque would be displayed in memory of her and her husband, and her parents, James and Mabel McCrary. "It’s such a compelling story," Harrison said of the unexpected source of funding for the church camp. "God knew where it was all along."