Osceola McCarty (1908-1999) worked as a washerwoman for over seventy-five years, from the time she left school in the sixth grade until arthritis in her hands forced her to retire in 1994. The following year she donated $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi to endow a scholarship for deserving African-American students in need. She had saved the money from her earnings and invested carefully. Although she had left Mississippi only once in her life before her donation, she subsequently traveled throughout the United States, recede an honorary doctorate from Harvard University, and carried the Olympic torch at the summer games in Atlanta in 1996.

Leibovitz, A. & Sontag, S. (2000). Women. New York, New York: Random House, p. 253.