The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, which is owned by 28 Episcopal dioceses in 12 states, will receive an estimated $7 million in the final bequest from the estate of one of America's foremost writers.

Rose Williams, the sister of the late Tennessee Williams the great writer, died in September. The estate which includes the rights to Williams' plays will go to the University. The writer learned of Sewanee through his grandfather who attended the School of Theology in the late 1890s. When the writer died in 1983 he specified in his will that he wanted to establish a programme to promote creative writing to honour his grandfather, who was an influential figure in his life. Williams left the bulk of his estate to his sister but stipulated that when she died it should go to the University.