South Carolina conservationist Anne Springs Close dies

FORT MILL, S.C. (AP) — Anne Springs Close who used her family’s textile fortune to give back to the community through education and land preservation has died. She was 95. Close’s family says she died Friday from injuries suffered when a tree branch fell on her at her property in Fort Mill, South Carolina, a few days earlier. Close ended up as the sole heir of the Springs textile empire, which stretched across the Southeast decades ago when textiles were one of the region’s main industry. She set aside land for the Anne Springs Close Greenway in the 1980s as suburban sprawl approached. Close also gave money and time to numerous education and family projects.