SYRACUSE (AP) -- A husband and wife who died eight years apart have donated more than $3 million to Catholic churches and organizations in their upstate New York hometown and in Illinois.

The Post-Standard of Syracuse reports that Marie Salenske's will called for donating $2.6 million to three Syracuse churches, $410,000 to a Syracuse monastery and $200,000 to Chicago's National Shrine of St. Jude. Another $1 million was split among two relatives and two friends.

The newspaper reports that Salenske and her husband Gus lived a quiet, modest life during 46 years of marriage spent in his childhood home in Syracuse. Gus Salenkse, a plumber, died in 2001 at age 80. His wife, who worked as a nurse, died eight years later at 88.

The couple didn't have children.

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)