Wisdom Is Only One of Her Gifts

America was stunned when Oseola McCarty, an 88-year-old retired laundrywoman with a sixth-grade education, donated $150,000--the bulk of her life savings--to the University of Southern Mississippi.

Some wanted to know her secret for saving so much money. Others wondered what made her so generous. Still others were curious about her philosophy on life.

The outpouring of interest led her to write a book, “Oseola McCarty’s Simple Wisdom for Rich Living.” Published several months ago by Longstreet Press in Marietta, Ga., the 80-page tome offers nuggets of simple wisdom accumulated through a lifetime of humility and hard work.

Starting this week, McCarty will make her first visit to Southern California to sign books and promote Black History Month. She will be in San Bernardino from Friday through Sunday, where she will serve as the grand marshal of the Black History Parade, autograph her book at the Phenix Information Center and receive an award at the Black Culture Foundation’s annual ball and pageant.

On Monday, McCarty will be guest of honor at a town hall meeting in Long Beach. Then it will be back home to Hattiesburg, Miss., where she lived quietly for nine decades before becoming a celebrity who is sought after by groups across the nation.

“What she did touched me so much,” said Leah Cash, co-chair for the San Bernardino Black Culture Foundation, “that I thought, ‘Who would make a greater grand marshal for our parade than someone like her who is such a role model for young people?’ ”

The opinions in McCarty’s book--on faith, work, family, saving money and relationships--aren’t anything new or earth-shattering. They combine liberal doses of belief in God with a straightforward attitude toward life.

Here is McCarty on savings: “The secret to building a fortune is compounding interest. It’s not the ones that make the big money, but the ones who know how to save who get ahead. You’ve got to leave your investment alone long enough for it to increase.”

On good living: “There’s a lot of talk about self-esteem these days. 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.”

Since the story of McCarty’s scholarship for needy African American students broke two years ago, McCarty’s life has changed irrevocably. The small, stooped woman whose fingers are gnarled from arthritis after 75 years of washing and ironing other people’s clothes has been bombarded with attention and showered with gifts.

Among her favorites: paintings sent by New Jersey artist Russell A. Murray. One shows a sweet-potato pie--her favorite. Another one, titled “Oseola’s Gifts,” shows an iron, a white shirt, a basket of clothes, clothespins, a clothesline and a washboard--the tools of her longtime trade.

In the past two years, the woman who rarely left her house except to go to the grocery store and church has been awarded the Presidential Citizen’s Medal by President Clinton in a White House ceremony and was his guest at a dinner given by the Congressional Black Caucus.

McCarty has also appeared on the television shows of David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters, who declared her one of “the 10 most fascinating people of 1995.” She has done hundreds of interviews.

At a National Urban League dinner in New York, Roberta Flack sang “Amazing Grace” to her and Whoopi Goldberg knelt at her feet.

She’s received an honorary degree from Harvard and an honorary diploma in nursing from Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. She carried the Olympic torch in the 1996 Olympics and wore walking shorts for the first time in her life. She even has her own Web site https://www.pr.usm.edu/USMPublic Relations Website.

“I used not to talk too much,” McCarty said in a telephone interview from her home. “But now I talk more. And I enjoy traveling and meeting all those people.”

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Her book grew out of conversations she had on her front porch during four days last spring with Shannon Maggio, who edited the volume for Longstreet Press.

“We wanted to make sure we had a lasting record of her words and philosophy of life,” Maggio said. “We have talked to people from all over and they’ve been amazed and fascinated by her.”

McCarty’s father died when she was young and her mother, Lucy, raised her. She dreamed of becoming a nurse but had to leave school after sixth grade to care for a sick aunt and never returned, she said in a soft drawl. Instead, she worked. At first she charged $1.50 a bundle. Then it grew to $10. That’s when she started saving.

“I never would take any of it out,” she said. “I just put it in. It just accumulated.”

McCarty, who never married or had children, put her money in First Mississippi National Bank, opening a savings account on the advice of a teller. Each month she deposited more. Her mother, aunt and grandmother died, and each left her a little money. In 1947, her uncle left her the clapboard house where she still lives.

Over the years, her bank merged with another, changed names, and McCarty expanded into CDs, conservative mutual funds and other accounts. She lived frugally, walking everywhere instead of buying a car and relying on a black-and-white TV that got only one channel--which she rarely watched anyway.

Her prize possession was a taped-up leather Bible. Until recently, she never had an air conditioner. She still turns it on only when visitors come.

Several years ago, bank personnel who worried about her future helped her draw up a will. McCarty told them she wanted to leave some to her church and some to her cousins. As for the rest:

“I had been thinking for a long time . . . since I was in school. . . . I wanted to give it to the college. They used to not let colored people go out there, but now they do, and I think they should have it. . . . I just want the scholarship to go to some child who needs it. I’m too old to get an education, but they can.”

McCarty’s attorney--she had done his laundry for years--insisted on meeting with her to make sure his washerwoman wasn’t being bamboozled out of her life savings. But McCarty was adamant.

Why the University of Southern Mississippi?

“Because it was in my hometown, and I didn’t have anybody with me and I wanted to share it with some other children,” she explained.

School officials were flabbergasted, saying they had never seen anything like it, especially from someone who was far from affluent and was donating practically her entire savings. After the gift was announced, the University Foundation led a matching drive and more than $200,000 in donations poured in from across the nation.

McCarty says she’s still surprised at all the attention she’s received since her will became public.

“I didn’t know I would be that famous. I’ve always trusted in the Lord, and that’s the only way I’ve been. In some ways, this has changed my life, but in a way it hasn’t. I’m still the same person and I’ll stay that way.”

* Oseola McCarty will arrive in San Bernardino on Friday and attend the Miss Black San Bernardino Pageant. On Saturday at 2:30 p.m., she will sign books at the Phenix Information Center. The same day, she will serve as grand marshal of the city’s 28th annual Black History Parade. That evening, she’ll receive the Black Rose Award from the Black Culture Foundation of San Bernardino at the Black History Ball. On Sunday, a gospel pageant has been scheduled in her honor at St. Paul’s AME Church at 4 p.m. For more information on all these events, contact Leah Cash at (909) 875-9622.

On Monday, McCarty will be guest of honor at the Long Beach Town Hall Meeting hosted by the city’s Public Safety Community Partnership. It will be held at the First Congregational Church in Long Beach from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. For more information, contact Andrew Romero at (310) 499-1208.