The Washerwoman's Enduring Fortune

In 1995, Oseola McCarty of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, stunned the nation when she donated $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi for scholarships. She was eighty-seven years old. She had earned every dollar washing and ironing other people's clothes since the sixth grade.

Miss McCarty never owned a car. She walked everywhere, pushing her grocery cart a mile to the store and back. Her tiny frame house had no air conditioning. She tithed faithfully to Friendship Baptist Church and tucked the rest into savings accounts at Trustmark National Bank, decade after decade, never once checking the balance.

When a banker finally showed her how much had accumulated, she didn't hesitate. She divided it simply: ten percent to the church, ten percent to cousins, and the rest to send young people to college who couldn't afford it — young people she would never meet.

Reporters asked if she felt she had sacrificed too much. She shook her head. "I am spending it," she said. "I just didn't spend it on myself."