Oseola McCarty: The Generous Washerwoman

For Shop Talk, Coach Bill tells the story of Oseola McCarty, the washerwoman who donated $150,000 to a school she never visited.

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, it's Bill Courtney. Welcome to shop. Talk number
forty eight. Welcome into the shop. I did not ring
that bell. Alex's son, George is in the shop. What's up, George?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
You gotta say something, dude.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Say hi, Say hi, louder Hi. How are you do
you like the shop? It's nice, isn't it? Actually?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Ask George, what question did you ask mister Bill coming in?
Don't be shy? How many pieces of the lumber?

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah, are in the yard and we figured about six
hundred thousand, right, So it's a big shop, isn't it.
George rang our bell everybody. George is Alex's youngest child
and he's the official bell ringer today. George, you're talking
to thousands of people right now. You know what we're
going to say. Welcome to the shop, Welcome to the shop.

(01:03):
Today we are going to talk about generosity, humility, and
how no matter who you are, where you come from,
you can be dignified and your generosity and your humility,
and Ocla McCarty and her generosity teaches us a story.

(01:27):
Right after these brief messages from our general sponsors, Welcome back, everybody.
I'm here with George and we're to talk.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
The other siblings are gonna feel real left out right now.
They're sitting in the room and you have not even
acknowledged their presence.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
George is the official bell ringer. But the truth is
in the shop today. We have all of Alex's children.
We've been introduced to George.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Way too many of them.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, way too many of them. We've we've been introduced
to George. Introduce yourselves, ladies. So there you have it.
All four kids are in the shop today and we're

(02:22):
going to talk about o Cla McCarty, a story I
promise you you've probably never heard. And we got the
story from the Philanthropy Roundtable. O Cla McCarty was born
in the world in nineteen o eight, and it was
a raw start. She was conceived when her mother was

(02:42):
raped on a wooden path in rural Mississippi as she
returned from tending to a sick relative. Oceola was raised
in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, by her grandmother and aunt, who cleaned houses,
cooked and took in laundry. As a child, she would
come home from elementary school and iron clothes, stashing the

(03:04):
money she earned in her doll buggy the three women
relied completely on each other, and when the aunt returned
from a hospitalization, I'm able to work. Ocella dropped out
of sixth grade to care for and take up her
work as a washerwoman. She never returned to school. Work

(03:25):
became the great good of her life, explained one person
a knew her. She found beauty in its movement and
pride in its provisions. She was happy to have it
and gave herself over to it with abandon. McCarty put
it this way. I knew there were people who didn't
have to work as hard as I did, but it
didn't make me feel sad. I loved to work, and

(03:49):
when you love to do anything, those things don't bother you.
Sometimes I work straight through two or three days. I
had goals I was working toward that motivated me, and
I was able to push hard. Work is a blessing
as long as I'm living, I want to be working
at something. Just because I'm old doesn't mean I can't work,

(04:09):
and hers was not a standard issue job. McCarty scrubbed
her laundry be hand on a rub board. She did
try an automatic washer and dryer in the sixties, but
found that the washing machine didn't rinse enough, and the
dryer turned the whites yellow. After years of boiling clothes
and then doing four fresh water rinses that wasn't good

(04:31):
enough to meet her high standards. The machine was almost
immediately retired, and she went back to her made right
scrubbard water drawn from a nearby fire hydrant and one
hundred feet of open air clotheslines. Asked to describe her
typical day, she answered, I would go outside and start
a fire under my washpot. Then I would soak, wash

(04:52):
and boil a bundle of clothes. Then I would rub them,
wrench them, rub them again, starch them, and hang them
on the line. After I had all the clean clothes
on the line, I would start on the next batch.
I would wash all day, and in the evening i'd
iron until eleven. I love the work, the bright fire wrenching,

(05:13):
the wet clean cloth, white shirts shining on the line.
This extraordinary worth ethic pursued straight through to her retirement
at eighty six, apparently produced results her customers appreciated. In
nineteen ninety six, Hattisburg businessman Paul Laughlan wrote, I know

(05:34):
one person who still has several shirts that were last
cleaned almost two years ago by miss McCarthy. He said
that he does not intend to wear them. He just
takes them out periodically to look at them and to
enjoy the crisp fabric and scent. McCarty concludes Laughlin was
a walking object lesson that all work can be performed

(05:57):
with dignity and infused with quality. Hard work gives your
life meeting state of McCarty. Everyone needs to work hard
at something to feel good about themselves. Every job can
be done well and every day has its satisfactions. If
you want to feel proud of yourself, you've got to
do things you can be proud of. Shortly after she retired,

(06:19):
McCarty did something that made many Americans very proud of her.
She had begun to save almost as soon as she
started working at the age of eight. As the money
pulled up in her doll buggy, the very young girl
took action. I went to the bank and deposited. Didn't
know how to do it, went there by myself, didn't
tell my mom and them I was going. I commenced

(06:41):
to save money. I never would take any of it out.
I just put it in. It's not the ones that
make the big money, but the ones who know how
to save, who get ahead. You got to leave it
alone long enough for it to increase. Of course, that
requires self control and modest appetites. It was contentment. I

(07:02):
was happy with what I had, said McCarty. These sturdy
habits ran together. Excuse me, These sturdy habits ran together
to produce McCarty's final secret. When she retired nineteen ninety five,
her hands painfully swollen with ourthritis, this washerwoman, who had
been paid in little piles of coins and dollar bills

(07:24):
her entire life, who dropped out of school in sixth grade,
had two hundred and eighty thousand dollars in the bank.
Even more startling, she decided to give most of it away,
not as a bequest, but immediately, setting aside just enough

(07:45):
to live on. MacCarty donated one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars to the University of Southern Mississippi to fund scholarships
for worthy but needy students seeking the education she never had.
When they found out what she'd done, over six hundred
men and women in Hattiesburg and beyond made donations that
more than tripled her original endowment. Today, the University presents

(08:09):
several food full tuition McCarty's scholarships every year. Like a
lot of philanthropists, McCarty wanted the satisfaction of giving while living,
and she succeeded. The first beneficiary of her gift, a
Hattiesburg girl named Stephanie Bullock, whereas president of her senior
class and had supportive parents, but also a twin brother

(08:30):
and not enough family income to send them both to college.
With her McCarty's scholarship, Bullok enrolled at Southern Miss and
properly adopted McCarty as a surrogate grandmother. Like a lot
of philanthropists, McCarty felt a power impulsion to act in
her home region. When asked why she picked Southern Miss,
she replied, because it's here, the campus that she had

(08:54):
never visited, not once in her life. Step foot On
was located only a couple from her home. Prior to
making her gift, Ocela's one long trip had been to
Niagara Falls. Here's her recollection law. The sound of the
water was like the sound of the world coming to

(09:15):
an end. In the evening, we spread blankets on the
ground and eight picnic dinners. I met people from all
over the world. On the return trip, we stopped in Chicago.
I liked it, but I was ready to get back home.
I missed the place where I belong, where I was
needed and making a contribution. No place compares to the
peace of earth, where you've put down your roots. Like

(09:38):
a lot of faithful philanthus O'silla, McCarthy was forgiving. Reminded
that the university she was giving her money to had
been white only until nineteen sixties, she answered, they used
to not let color people go there, but now they do,
and I think they should have it Like a lot
of philanthropus ocell McCarthy had a strong and virtuous character

(09:59):
and good health habits. She lived fruity, walking almost everywhere,
including more than a mile to get her groceries. When
she stayed in a hotel for the first time after
coming to public attention, she made the bed before check
it out. In addition to the dignity of work, McCarthy's
satisfactions were the timeless ones, faith in God, family closeness,

(10:24):
and love of locale. One friend described macarthy's face as
simple as the sermon on the mount, and it's difficult
to practice. She was baptized as age at age thirteen,
dunked in a local pond while dressed in all white
a mixed blessing for someone who washed her clothes by hands.
I started each day on my knees saying the Lord's prayer.

(10:47):
Then I got busy about my work. McCarthy told one interviewer.
You have to accept God the best way you know how,
and then he'll show himself to you. And the more
you serve him, the more able you are to serve them.
Some people make a lot of noise about what's wrong
with the world, and they are usually blaming somebody else.
I think people who don't like the way things are

(11:09):
need to look at themselves first. They need to get
right with God and change their own ways. If everybody
did that, we'd be all right. Like a lot of philanthroper's,
josil and McCarty knew that giving is its own pleasure.
When a journalist from People magazine asked her why she
didn't spend the money she'd saved on herself, she answered
with a smile that, thanks to the pleasure that comes

(11:31):
from making a gift, I am spending it on myself.
I'm proud that I worked hard and that my money
will help young people who worked hard to deserve it.
I'm proud that I'm leaving something positive of this world.
My only regret is that I didn't have more to give.
Like a lot of philanthropists, McCarty hope to inspire others

(11:52):
to similar acts, and she did. In addition to the
local outpouring that more than tripled her endowment, Cable TV
mogul Ted Turner decided to donate a billion dollars to
charity after hearing her story. A billion dollars. He was
quoted in New York Times saying, if that little woman

(12:13):
can give away everything she has, that I can give
a billion. And like a lot of philantropists, Ocel, McCarty
knew she didn't have to save the whole world. She
cast her buckets down and fixed what was at hand.
I can't do everything, but I can do something to
help somebody. And what I can do, I will do, Ocel.

(12:34):
And McCarty deserves to be recognized not only for her
own accomplishments, but as a representative millions of other everyday
Americans who give humbly of themselves year after year. Sounds
kind of like a army of normal folks, she represents Alex.
As I read that to you, guys, I challenge you

(12:59):
to go to g and look this woman up. It
is the story of a washerwoman with a sixth grade education,
who worked from sun up to sundown, who gave of
herself and at the end of the day saved over
a quarter of a million dollars in quarters and dollars

(13:21):
first and are bugging, and then in the bank that
gave to a university so that people that came from
where she came could work hard and have an education.
If you do not think that average Americans can make
a massive difference, then you don't know the likes of

(13:41):
an Osila McCarty. So Shop Talk number forty eight is
about generosity and humility and doing what you can where
you can, and recognizing that anything you do, if you
do it with all you got and you give and
you're humble and you're generous, you never know how massive

(14:06):
your contribution society can be. And if a sixth grade
educated black woman from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, who wouldn't have even
been admitted to the university prior to nineteen sixty that
she gave her money to can change the world what
can each of us do.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
The other thing I really like that she said is
after visiting Niagara Falls in Chicago. I'm saying, yeah, it
was nice, but I want to be back in my
little plot of land, Like God's given us this plot
of land that we're all called to and what can
we do there? And it's such a beautiful sentiment of verse.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah, it reminds me of the story Just grow where
you are. Yeah, And that's what she did. So Shop
Talk number forty eight is a call to me and
to all of you, recognize that you can do phenomenal things.
You don't have to have great wealth, you don't have
to have great education. Just be a normal person and

(15:05):
do what you can where you are, and you can
and change the world and inspire others and.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Maybe even a billionaire. I forgot about the Ted Turner
part of the story.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
Yeah that was fah. I mean this woman eventually had
Ted Turner give a billion dollars because of her. It's
pretty amazing, all right. So, uh, if you like this
shop talk, rate it and review it, share friends and
on social join the army at normal folks dot us.

(15:35):
Become a premium member there and if you want to
email me. Email me anytime at Bill at normal folks
dot us. If you have an idea for a shop
talk and I think we have something to add, I'll
certainly take it up. If not, I will always respond, Hey,
I did that you was that about right? Yeah? Finally
that's it, And.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Uh, you're just trying to show off to my kids.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
That's it me, Alex and the four kids are leaving
the shop, and.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
You think he's ready, do you know what? I don't
think he's ready to know what he's about to do.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
He's about to do it, So it's time to go. George,
what are you going to do? Yeah, that's right. We'll
see you next week