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If you are looking for a good cause and want to help a runner who is helping some very special people, take a look at her Letter to All.
A First Grade Class Needs Your Number! Read their letter to you!
Willye White was born the last day of December in 1939, to sharecropper parents in the Mississippi Delta cotton country. She was abandoned by her parents and raised by her grandparents who instilled the value of hard work in their young charge. It was a hard lesson, but it helped her develope the mental toughness that would strenghten her reslove later in life.
She was sent to labor in the cotton fields at a young age rather than clean houses or baby-sit for white families. At least in the fields, she would not be subjected to the bias that was prevalent in Mississippi during that time. It was in the cotton fields she learned about hard work and the pride of being able to earn money. Her contribution was expected, but it was also appreciated.
Her work ethic stuck as did pride in herself. She knew if she worked hard at something, she would achieve her goal. That was evident in her approach to sports and in the classroom. White is the only American woman ever to appear in five straight Olympics.
In 1976 she received her degree from Chicago State University 17 years after taking her first college course at Tennessee State. It was a long term goal and she finally accomplished what she had started. She never gave up.
She appeared in the '56, '60, '64, '68, and '72 Games. She placed second in the long jump in the '56 Games and placed second in the 4 x 100 meter relay in 1964. That was an amazing accomplishment to qualify for the Olympics so may times.
Willye started running because of her very challenging childhood. Athletics was her ticket to freedom. It meant freedom from bias, from illiteracy. Says Willye, "Athletics was my acceptance in the world. It was a God-given talent, a gift to enable me to leave very unkind situation.
"I found at the age of 10 that I had a unique talent, so I decided I was going to develop that talent
