On
June 10th 1994, a group of friends and family gathered at a lawyer's
office in Santa Monica, California to read the last will and testament
of 79 year old Thelma Pearl Howard. Thelma had died quietly in a nursing
home just a few weeks earlier just 16 days shy of her 80th birthday.
From the outside, Thelma Howard had lived a very modest life. Her most
notable achievement was working as Walt Disney's personal housekeeper
for more than thirty years. She cooked all of Walt's meals and helped
raise his two young daughters. For this service she was paid a modest
annual salary, perhaps slightly more than the average housekeeper
because her boss was so wealthy and famous. So, you can imagine the
utter shock when Thelma's lawyer announced that she had in fact
controlled a
multi-million dollar stock portfolio and
was leaving the half of her impressive net worth to charity. How exactly
did a lowly housekeeper end up dying with millions of dollars in the
bank? The story is truly heartwarming and inspirational.
Walt Disney's Millionaire Housekeeper
Thelma
Pearl Howard was born in June of 1915 to a family of very poor farmers
in Southwick, Idaho. Thelma was the second of five children. Her
childhood was filled with pain starting at the age of six when her
mother tragically died during child birth. Two more siblings died
unexpectedly before she reached the age of 18. Thelma briefly moved to
Spokane, Washington to attend college but was forced to drop out before
completing a full year of classes because she couldn't afford the
tuition anymore. After Spokane, Thelma moved to Los Angeles where she
held down three jobs to make ends meet. She poured drinks at a soda
fountain, cleaned houses and worked part time as a secretary.
In
1951, at the age of 36, Thelma landed a dream job when she was hired as a
live-in housekeeper at Walt Disney's sprawling estate in Holmby Hills,
California. One can only imagine the culture shock Thelma must have felt
coming from such humble beginnings then moving into an 8 bedroom 17
bathroom, 3.6 acre mansion that was listed in October 2012 for
$90 million.
The Disney mansion's pool house was bigger than her family's entire
home back in Idaho. Needless to say, Thelma never dreamed of living in a
house that featured a putting green, tennis court, swimming pool,
library, gym and much more.
Walt Disney's Mansion
Up
until Thelma, Walt Disney could not find a housekeeper that clicked
with his family. The previous housekeeper was a fine cook but did not
get along with his two young daughters. In fact, tensions were so high
that the previous housekeeper actually banned the children from ever
setting foot in the kitchen. She also forced the girls to stay in their
rooms while she cleaned the house. Thelma was the exact opposite. She
adored the two young girls and loved having their company while she
prepared amazing three course dinners every night. While Thelma cooked,
Diane and Sharon Disney would sit at the kitchen counter and marvel at
the meals that were magically being whipped together. In addition to
three course feasts, Thelma knew to keep the fridge stocked with Walt's
favorite snack, hot dogs, which he apparently scarfed down every night
before dinner. In contrast to their previous housekeeper, Thelma was
warm and loving and eventually became part of the Disney family. Walt
even went so far as to describe Thelma as "
the real life Mary Poppins".
Throughout
the thirty years that Thelma worked for the Disney family, she was paid
a little more than the average housekeeper's salary. She was also given
free room and board which made her paycheck go a long way, but would
never make her "rich". On the other hand, working for Walt Disney
presented Thelma with a very unique perk. Every Christmas and birthday,
Walt gave Thelma shares of Disney stock as a bonus. As the Disney empire
expanded, the number of shares she received grew. Because Thelma
respected Walt so much, she never sold a single share in her entire
lifetime and even used some of her own money to buy more on the side.
Real Life Mary Poppins
Over
the years, Thelma's stock portfolio slowly ballooned. A few shares
became a hundred. A hundred became a thousand. A thousand became ten
thousand and so on. When Thelma first began receiving the shares, owning
Disney stock wasn't particularly exciting. Then, between 1945 and 1965,
the company exploded into the cultural phenomenon the world knows and
loves today. Disneyland opened in July 1955 and was an immediate
success. Then Disney studios went on a creative tear churning out a
series of classic films like "Lady and the Tramp" (1955), "Sleeping
Beauty" (1959), "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961) and "Mary
Poppins" (1964). Mary Poppins earned $30 million at the box office, more
than any other movie in 1964, and with re-releases would go on to earn
the inflation adjusted equivalent of $375 million. As the company grew,
so did its stock price. Thanks to those annual gifts and a number of
stock splits, by the time Thelma died in 1994 she had amassed an
astonishing
193,000 shares of Disney which at the time were worth
$9.5 million!
Thelma
retired in 1981 and spent the next decade living a quiet life in a
humble two bedroom bungalow until her failing health forced her to move
into an equally modest nursing home. After she died, a small group of
friends and family were called to hear the reading of her will. Those
who were present could not believe their ears when the lawyer explained
that not only did Thelma die a multi-millionaire, but she earmarked half
of her fortune to establish a charitable foundation. Thelma left the
other half to her adult son who was developmentally disabled and living
in a full time care facility in Long Beach. Over the next 20 years, the
Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation
donated millions of dollars to dozens of charities. Her foundation is
especially active in supporting charities that focus on disadvantaged
children and arts education. Having had a difficult childhood herself,
Thelma thought it was especially important that she do her part to help
other at risk kids.
And there's one final mystery. If Thelma's
original shares were never sold and are still being held in trust today,
they would have tripled from 193,000 shares to
579,000
thanks to a 3-1 split that occurred in June 1998. If this scenario is
true, at Disney's most recent closing price of $64 Thelma's 579,000
shares would be worth a staggering
$37 million today! Not bad for a poor housekeeper from Idaho.
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