In June of 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 their friend/relative, Thelma Pearl Howard. Thelma had died at a nearby nursing home a few weeks earlier at the age of 79. She was 16 days shy of her 80th birthday.
From the outside, Thelma Howard lived a very modest life. Her most notable achievement was working as Walt Disney’s personal housekeeper for thirty years, from 1951 to 1981. She cooked all of Walt’s meals and helped raise his two young daughters. For this service, Thelma was paid a modest annual salary, perhaps slightly more than the average housekeeper, because her boss was so wealthy and famous.
As it turns out, much to the shock of her surviving family and friends, Thelma was actually a secret multi-millionaire. And then, her lawyer dropped a second bombshell. Thelma left half of her impressive net worth to charity. How exactly did a lowly housekeeper secretly die a multi-millionaire??? Thanks to a very special bi-annual perk…
Thelma’s Early Life
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 childbirth. 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.
R. Mitchell/Express/Getty Images
Real-Life Mary Poppins
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 she must have felt coming from such humble beginnings and then moving into an 8-bedroom, 17-bathroom, 3.6-acre mansion.
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Side note: This mansion remained in the Disney family until 1990, when Walt’s widow sold the property to entrepreneur Gabriel Brener for $8.5 million. In October 2012, after a major renovation, Gabriel listed the property for $90 million. He accepted $74 million two years later. Here’s a video tour from May 2014:
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The Disney mansion’s pool house was bigger than Thelma’s 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.
Up until Thelma, Walt Disney could not find a housekeeper who clicked with his family. The previous housekeeper was a fine cook but did not get along with his two young daughters, Sharon and Diane. 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, because Walt had a habit of coming home and grabbing a few cold hot dogs as a snack – one for the family poodle, Lady, and two for himself.
In contrast to their previous housekeeper, Thelma was warm and loving and eventually became part of the Disney family. When one of the Disney children was a toddler, they struggled to pronounce Thelma’s name. It came out as “foo foo.” That nickname stuck,
Walt and Thelma shared a special rapport and a similar sense of humor; he felt comfortable joking with her, and she could tease him right back. Despite her often brusque, practical exterior, Thelma was remembered as “a combination of real loving and kind of crusty,” someone who was tough but tender-hearted. Walt even went so far as to describe Thelma as “the real-life Mary Poppins.”
(Photo by Gene Lester/Getty Images)
Unique Perk
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… Thelma received a unique bi-annual perk working for Mr. Disney.
Every Christmas and birthday, Walt gifted Thelma shares of Disney stock as a bonus.
He also advised her to “hang onto” the shares.
As the Disney empire expanded, the number of shares she received grew. And 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.
Thelma’s Stock Portfolio
Over the decades, 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. At the time of her death, those shares – not even including her quarterly dividends – were worth…
$9.5 million
FYI, that’s the same as around $20 million in today’s dollars after adjusting for inflation. Not bad for a poor housekeeper from Idaho!
Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation
Thelma retired in 1981 and spent the next decade living a quiet life in a humble two-bedroom LA bungalow until her failing health forced her to move into an equally modest nursing home.
Thelma died on June 12, 1994. She was buried in a pink casket – her favorite color – at Forest Lawn cemetery, overlooking Disney Studios.
As revealed by the LA Times in October 1992, a few weeks after her death, a 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 had 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.
In 1994, her money was used to establish the Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation.
Over the last 30 years, the Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation has 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 the foundation still has money to give! According to its most recent IRS filing (2023), the Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation has $4,539,683 worth of assets and it gave away around $380,000 that year.
In August 2024, an LA-based charity called P.S. Arts celebrated 20 years of support from the Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation. From the announcement:
“Thelma Pearl Howard’s name has been synonymous with the advancement of arts education in California since the establishment of the Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation in 1994. Through the Foundation’s consistent and generous grants, P.S. ARTS and numerous other nonprofits have received the crucial support they need to sustain and grow their educational programs for students in preschool through the eighth grade in Los Angeles County.
Howard’s commitment to arts education began early in her life, shaped by a deep belief that every child should have access to creative outlets, regardless of their socio-economic background. Her foundation’s support has not only provided funding for materials and teachers but has also helped nurture a culture where the arts are seen as an integral part of a holistic education.
P.S. ARTS has been one of the primary beneficiaries of Howard’s foundation. Over the past 20 years, this partnership has enabled P.S. ARTS to expand its reach, bringing quality arts education to tens of thousands of students across California. Thank you to the Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation for supporting P.S. ARTS!“
Thelma’s Shares Today…
Just for fun, let’s pretend Thelma’s original shares were never sold and are still being held in trust today. Thanks to a 3-1 stock split that occurred in June 1998, her 193,000 shares would have converted into 579,000. In March 2021, when Disney’s stock price hit an all-time (so far) high of $200, Thelma’s stake would have been worth $116 million! As I type this article, Disney stock is trading at around $110, so her hypothetical shares would be worth $64 million.
That’s not all!
Last year, Disney paid a $0.45 dividend in July and a $0.50 dividend in December. Owning 579,000 shares would have equated to $550,000 in cash dividends.
Content shared from www.celebritynetworth.com.