Denver ? A 72-year-old bookkeeper has been sentenced to three years in prison for stealing an estimated $401,486 from one of the state’s first cemeteries.

Investigators believe Gladys Eileen Templeton may have stolen more than that amount from the nonprofit Fairmount Cemetery, formed in 1890, in her 21 years of working there.

Prosecutor Joe Morales said Templeton virtually had total control of Fairmount’s financial records, which she kept on a computer system only she knew how to operate.

Templeton pleaded guilty to theft, and Denver District Judge Paul Markson ordered her on Tuesday to make restitution of $251,000. Markson noted that Templeton’s age and income, which consists of Social Security, made total repayment almost impossible.

“I will never, ever be able to forgive myself,” Templeton said. “You can’t put on paper how I feel. I betrayed their trust. People are feeling very badly about me and rightly so.”