"I feel I am the luckiest child in the world to have had a mother and father who lived, rather than just preached, their faith and family values," claims Marian Wright Edelman. Through her parents' example, she learned that being honest was more important than being honored. She learned first-hand that faith was safer and more enduring than fame.

Marian was the youngest of five children. Her father was a Baptist preacher who, Marian says, "lived every day the faith he preached on Sunday." He was an example for her and her brothers and sisters as well as for their community. Marian's mother worked in the background but exhibited that same practical faith. Her mother kept both their home and the church running smoothly.

The children worried how their mother would manage after their father died. "My mother did not miss a beat," Marian proudly states, "in assuming either the family or church leadership mantle." Her brother Harry assumed his father's pulpit while her mother continued as church organist and fund-raiser. She lived out "our father's legacy of service in and outside the home," Marian reflects.

Marian's mother prospered by giving and led by serving. After her husband died, Mrs. Wright opened her home for 12 foster children. She continued to operate the Wright Home for the Aged, located behind the church, until she died. This selfless woman cooked three meals a day for senior citizens, some of whom were younger than she was. Finally, her family convinced her to hire a cook. This remarkable woman kept up her community and church work until a few weeks before her death because, as she told her children many times, "I did not promise the Lord that I was going part of the way. I promised him I was going all the way until he tells me otherwise."