“Think of giving not as a duty but as a privilege.” John D. Rockefeller

“I believe that it is my duty to make money and use it for the benefit of my neighbors. This is what my conscience tells me.” John D. Rockefeller

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.” Charles Dickens

Every now and then I read stories that just lifts my heart. Recently there have been articles of heroes saving lives and people donating to charitable causes close to their heart. It reminded me of a story I heard about many years ago, but is still very inspiring today.

This article was reported on the front page of the New York Times in 1995:

All She Has, $150,000, Is Going to a University

You can lead without a title, anyone can lead @_robin_sharma great story about Oseola McCarty #v2r @pwc_tech http://t.co/zV5eIM7Wrn

— Tony Sabeta (@sabetaip) April 16, 2015

She may be gone, but her act of charity is remembered. This tweet is from 2017. Ms. McCarty passed away in 1999. Therefore, the good you do is still remembered long after you are gone.

Oseola McCarty, a Washerwoman Who Gave All She Had to Help Others, Dies at 91 https://t.co/M8tYhMnUaw

— Faith Abraham (@1faithabraham) April 3, 2017

Her name was Oseola McCarty. And here is her story.

MEET OSEOLA MCCARTY

Oseola McCarty was born on March 7, 1908 in Mississippi. As a young child, she had to quit school in order to tend to a sick family member. Quitting school in the sixth grade, she went straight to work as a laundress like her grandmother before her. She would go on to do this for about 75 years. Leaving school was one of her biggest regrets. She wanted to go back, but all the kids in her class had moved on ahead and so she didn’t go back because she wanted to be with her class. She decided to just keep working.

HOW SHE SAVED $150,000

She was never idle. She was working since she was a young child until she retired in 1994. She worked for many years and just put almost every dollar she made into the bank. She learned to save from her mother and kept the habit for life.

The following is what she did over 70 years:

• She took one short vacation to Niagara Falls
• She did not travel
• She did not fly on planes
• She did not stay in hotels
• She never owned a car (she walked everywhere)
• All her immediate family passed away and she never married or had children
• She had lived alone since 1967
• She lived in a family home her uncle gave her in 1947 for the rest of her life
• Money she received from the passing of her mother and aunt went into savings
• She spent almost nothing and lived very frugally
• Repaired instead of replaced items for brand new ones
• Covered her old bible in Scotch tape to keep Corinthians from falling out
• Cut wholes in her shoes if they did not fit
• Bought her first air-conditioner in 1992 and only uses it when company comes over
• Owns one tiny black and white television (that only gets one channel) but she rarely watches
• She did not retire until she was around 85 years old
• Keeps her utility bills low
• Never subscribed to a newspaper because it cost too much (an extravagance)
• She would pay her bills and deposit the rest of her money (even coins) into savings
• Over time this grew into $280,000

How she donated her life savings

One day she decided she would gift her money to a local university. Not as a bequest, but immediately as she wanted to be alive to see a recipient graduate from college as he one wish. In July 1995, she would go on to start a scholarship fund to help finance college tuition for students, preferably of African-American descent, who would be unable to attend college due to financial hardship. at the University of Mississippi. When asked why she chose that school, she simply said, because it was close.

A banker at one of her financial institutions assisted her. In 1995, he wanted to help an 87-year-old Ms. McCarty, but was unsure how to assist a woman with a fifth-grade education through estate planning. He came up with the novel idea of giving her 10 dimes, each representing 10 percent of her assets. He gave her five slips of paper to write down the names of the beneficiaries and divide up the coins. She deposited one dime to her church, one for each of her cousins and the last six for a scholarship fund, after setting aside enough money to live on.

She signed an irrevocable living trust and the bank managed her funds while she received a regular check for her living expenses.

WHY SHE DONATED

She decided to give because she knew the importance of education. She had struggled all her life doing manual labor (scrubbing laundry by hand on a scrub board). She did not want that for the younger generation coming up so she gifted them money to help them not have to do what she did and get a degree she was never able to get herself.

Oseola McCarty (1908-1999), an 88 yr old woman set up a $100k scholarship fund on an income of $10 an hr washing clothes.

— Miriam Joy (@mjp2520) May 13, 2017

FOR EVERY ACTION THERE IS A REACTION

The news hit the media and overnight she went from obscurity to a celebrity. She wanted no monuments or other recognition’s of her selflessness, but they came to her.

Once word spread of what she had done, it spread far and fast. Accolades and recognition for her act of charity in anticipation of her death was almost immediate. Goodness and kindness tend to spread. There was a chain reaction to her charitable action that had people wanting to reciprocate what she had done by also donating. This is what happened over four years:

• She was honored by the United Nations
• She received more than 300 awards
• Contributions poured in from other donations adding almost $330,000 to her gift
• Ted Turner donated a billion dollars to charity after hearing her act of philanthropy
• She received the Presidential Citizen’s Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian award
• She received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University
• She carried the Olympic torch through part of Mississippi in 1996
• In December 1996, hers was the hand on the switch that dropped the ball in Times Square in New York’s New Year’s Eve celebration (also the first time she stayed up past midnight, rode an airplane, and stayed in a hotel)
• McCarty received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards
• She was awarded an honorary degree from USM, the first such degree awarded by the university in 1998
• McCarty was also recognized with an Essence Award and Patti LaBelle sang tribute to her during the ceremony at Madison Square Garden in New York.
• She even met President Clinton
• She became an author; she wrote a book called Simple Wisdom for Rich Living, published in 1996

Ms. McCarty gave out pearls of wisdom, if people wanted to listen, but mostly it was common decency and sense she had said. She also said you should know the difference between a need and a want. Just because something is free does not mean you need it. It is okay to turn down something that is free, if you really do not need it. ”There’s a lot of talk about self-esteem these days,” she once said. ”It seems pretty basic to me. If you want to feel proud of yourself, you’ve got to do things you can be proud of. Feelings follow actions.”

It was reported that her home will be turned into a museum.

Oseola McCarty house to be turned into museum https://t.co/dGbwy7BRGZ

— Clarion Ledger (@clarionledger) April 26, 2017

When asked what she wanted to do with her money right before she donated it, Ms. McCarty replied: “I want to help some child go to college.”

And just in case you were wondering, the recipient of the very first Oseola McCarty award not only met Ms. McCarty in person to say thank you, but she also went to the University of Mississippi and graduated.  Ms. Oseola McCarty also lived long enough to get her wish: to live to see a recipient graduate.