Eulogy

By Stephanie Bullock

One Sunday morning in 1995, the front page of my local newspaper carried the story of an 86-year-old African-American woman. She had spent her life taking care of ill family members and working as a laundress, and had decided to give away $150,000 of her life savings. OSEOLA MCCARTY wanted to give someone else an opportunity she had never had. I became the first recipient of the Oseola McCarty Scholarship at the University of Southern Mississippi. Her act was not a quest for fame. The gift was genuine good old-fashioned kindness that perfectly reflected the kind of person Miss Ola was. This small, quiet lady, who became another grandmother to me, lived a very simple life of charity. Miss Ola was sincere, sweet, hardworking and God-fearing. During one of my last conversations with her, she asked about the condition of everyone in my family by name--but she was the one in the hospital. Though Miss Ola dined with President Clinton, chatted with Oprah Winfrey and helped ring in the New Year in Times Square, she never lost her humility or her grace. Miss Ola gave up the peace and quiet she had grown to cherish over the years, doing whatever was requested and not once asking for anything in return. Her gift was so much more than financial assistance. It told the world that good people with good intentions still exist. I hope to live a life comparable to hers.

--STEPHANIE BULLOCK, U.S.M. graduate student