Oseola McCarty was born in 1908, and it was a raw start. She was conceived when her mother was raped on a wooded path in rural Mississippi as she returned from tending a sick relative. Oseola was raised in Hattiesburg by her grandmother and aunt, who cleaned houses, cooked, and took in laundry. As a child, Oseola would come home from elementary school and iron clothes, stashing the money she earned in her doll buggy first and then in a local bank.

She dropped out of school in sixth grade never to return and became a full-time washerwoman. She took care of her grandmother and aunt with her meager earnings and yet managed to save some money in pennies washing other people’s clothes for 75 years. Her grandmother and aunt passed away after few years but Oseala continued to work and continued to save.

Amazingly, in December, 1994 when she decided to retire Oseola McCarty, gave away a life savings of $150,000 to help complete strangers get a college education at the University of Southern Mississippi in her hometown. She had not even known exactly what the word ”philanthropy” meant, but the elderly washerwoman gave away practically every dollar she ever saved to endow a scholarship fund for poor students in Mississippi becoming a symbol of selfless giving and a big vision.

USM Foundation sparked a matching fund-raising drive that raised more than $330,000 from 600 donors. The donations were channeled into the Oseola McCarty Endowed Scholarship Fund, which already has provided scholarships for 27 students — 9 of whom have graduated.After hearing of Miss McCarty’s gift, Ted Turner, a multibillionaire, gave away a million dollars.”I’m giving it away so that the children won’t have to work so hard, like I did and get good education that I didn’t,” she said in July 1995.