Women's History Wednesday: Spotlight - Katharine Drexel

Katharine Drexel's story certainly is unlike any other. Born in 1858 to one of Philadelphia's wealthiest and most prominent families, the heiress and society girl shocked her family and the nation when she became a Roman Catholic nun and social activist at age 31. Using her inheritance of $7 million (about $180 million in today's currency), she spent the next 60 years and an estimated $20 million building missions, schools and churches for Native Americans and African-Americans. She was known as the worlds wealthiest nun, and the only nun to found a university: Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically black college or university that is Catholic