She quit school in the sixth grade to care for a sick aunt, and then she washed and ironed other families’ clothes for more than 75 years. No headlines, no shortcuts, no luck. And in July 1995, at 87 years old, Oseola McCarty of Hattiesburg, Mississippi stunned the whole country — because all those years over a washboard, she had been quietly saving, coin by coin, for children she would never meet.
Sit with the arithmetic of a life like hers. Every payment for washing and ironing was small. The years were not. Across more than seven decades of other people’s laundry, McCarty saved from every payment, lived simply, and let the little pile do what little piles do when nobody touches them: grow.
Then came the kitchen table. Working with her bank, she famously divided her estate with ten dimes laid out on that table. One dime — 10% — for her church. One dime each for three relatives. And six dimes — 60% — for the University of Southern Mississippi. Print it the exact, honest way: she set aside an estimated $150,000, through an irrevocable trust that would take effect at her death, for scholarships for students — preferably Black students from southern Mississippi — who could not otherwise afford college. Not a stunt, not a photo moment. A washerwoman’s estate plan, drawn in dimes.
The medal, the degree, and the one wish
The country noticed. President Clinton presented her the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian award. The University of Southern Mississippi gave her its first-ever honorary degree, in 1998. Harvard gave her an honorary doctorate. A woman who had to leave school in the sixth grade was being handed degrees by universities — for teaching them what generosity actually looks like when it’s measured in dimes instead of fortunes.
But McCarty had one wish of her own, and it wasn’t a medal. She wanted to live to see the first McCarty Scholar graduate. She got her wish: Stephanie Bullock graduated in 1999, with McCarty watching. Months later, on September 26, 1999, Oseola McCarty died at 91 — having seen, with her own eyes, exactly what her dimes had done.
There are richer donors in the record books. There is nobody richer in the only currency this story counts: years of quiet work, saved on purpose, aimed at strangers. Six dimes for other people’s children. That is the whole sermon.
Join the conversation
Ten dimes on a kitchen table: one for church, three for family, six for strangers’ children. Be honest — how would YOUR ten dimes be divided? And is Oseola McCarty the greatest giver this page has ever told you about? Tell us below.
Source note: Oseola McCarty (1908–1999) of Hattiesburg, Mississippi — quitting school in the sixth grade to care for a sick aunt and spending 75+ years washing and ironing other families’ clothes while quietly saving from every payment; in July 1995, at 87, working with her bank and famously dividing her estate with ten dimes on her kitchen table — one dime (10%) for her church, one each for three relatives, and six dimes (60%) for the University of Southern Mississippi — setting aside an estimated $150,000 through an irrevocable trust taking effect at her death (not a cash handover in 1995) for scholarships for students, preferably Black students from southern Mississippi, who could not otherwise afford college; President Clinton presenting her the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian award; USM giving her its first-ever honorary degree in 1998 and Harvard giving her an honorary doctorate; her wish to see the first McCarty Scholar graduate being fulfilled when Stephanie Bullock graduated in 1999 with McCarty watching; and her death on Sept 26, 1999, at 91 — is from the University of Southern Mississippi, Presidential Citizens Medal records, and reporting sourced to the New York Times (July 26, 1995) and the AP obituary.
