Style Design Studio

Oseola McCarty, eighty-seven, did one thing all her life: laundry. Now she's famous for it. For decades, she earned fifty cents per load doing laundry for well-to-do families in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, preferring a washboard over a washing machine. Every week she put a little bit in a savings account. When she finally retired she asked her banker how much money she had. "$250,000," he replied. She was in shock. "I had more than I could use," she explained. So this shy, never-married laundry woman gave $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi to help African American young people attend college. "It's more blessed to give than to receive," she told reporters. "I've tried it."