Oseola McCarty

"Give what you have.  To someone, it may be better than you dare to think."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Oseola McCarty was truly a woman of faith.

This simple Mississippi woman supported herself by doing laundry until she retired . . . at age eighty-six.  As a child, Oseola had hoped to become a nurse, but she had to leave school when she was in the sixth grade to help her family with finances.  She became a laundress, washing and ironing other people's clothes just as her grandmother, mother, and aunt had done before her.  For over seventy years she toiled, saving just a dollar or two at a time.  Taking pride in her work, she lived simply, trusted God to care for her,  and saved her money.  Then, when she retired in 1994, she quietly donated $150,000 - which was most of her life's savings - to start a college scholarship fund at the University of Southern Mississippi.  This fund would provide for needy students and enable them to have the education she never did.

This amazing gesture from the then eighty-eight-year-old woman - who appeared to have so little - had an impact far beyond her expectations.  You see, once word of her generosity spread, Oseola'sa charity inspired countless others - including business, political, and community leaders - to match her giving spirit.  For instance, upon hearing of Oseola's gift, multibillionaire Ted Turner donated a billion dollars to charity, saying, "If that little woman can give away everything she has, then I can give a billion."  McCarty's simple gift inspired quite a movement of giving!

Before her death in 1999 at age ninety-one, Oseola McCart had become famous, and that fact made her retirement years dramatically different from what her earlier life had been like.  Major newspapers and magazines featured articles on her.  She received the Presidential Citizens Medal, an honorary doctorate degree from Harvard University, a medal from UNESCO, and more than threee hundred varous awards.  She was even featured on a Barbara Walters television special.  While Oseola seemed to appreciate the attention and travel that her newly found fame bought her, she complained, "I don't want to be put up on a pedastal.  I want to stay right here on the ground."  Oseola shared her philosophy in a book called Simple Wisdom for Rich Living.  In his review of the book, Louis Carlozo of the Chicago Tribune said, "McCarty's wisdom is . . . reminiscent of a cross between The Wealthy Barber and MOther Teresa's A Simple Path.  Seeds of wisdom spill from the pages, and any reader prudnet enough to plant them could find themselves laying the bed for a similarly rich life."

Oseola McCarty patiently planted one seed of kindness at a time over a period of seventy years.  The garden of giving that she inspired continues to bloom today, and her kegacy will bear seeds for years to come.