From Sharecropping To Brown

Ruth Simmons has a simple explanation for why she has achieved so much.

"I would not have thought it possible for a person of my background to become president of Brown University. But then, Brown didn't forget it's values," Simmons said.

Simmons' values were shaped by hard work, a loving family and a heart that told her to believe in herself, no matter what. For 30 years, she's been trying to pass on those values to her students, CBS News Correspondent Russ Mitchell reports.

The youngest of 12, she was born 55 years ago in the small town of Grapeland, Texas. Her parents were sharecroppers, "which is one of the hardest things that you can do — backbreaking," she said. "And children are even enlisted in picking cotton or were enlisted and were taken out of school often to help pick cotton."

It was a hard life that only got harder when the family moved to Houston. In addition to battling the racism of the 1950s, Simmons said for the first time she realized how poor she was.

"That's when I was conscious of people making fun of me because I didn't have proper clothes," Simmons said.

In fact, she only had two outfits, but she also discovered something that would change her life.

"Teachers made all the difference in the world to me. They said, 'Ruth, you can do wonderful things. Congratulations, you are very smart.' I could live with having clothes that were unattractive, because people were constantly telling me that there was something very attractive about me and that is my mind," she said.

It was a teacher who helped her get a scholarship to Dillard University. From there it was grad school at Harvard University, then administrative and teaching stints at universities across the country.

Five years ago she became president of prestigious Smith College in Massachusetts, where she has doubled the endowment, started the first school of engineering at a woman's college and personally recruited more blacks to campus.

She's seen the problems many times before coming to a campus like Smith.

"I went into a school last year, a public school in Houston, Texas in the inner city. I walked in the door ...the halls were strewn with trash," Simmons said. "I walked into the principal's office... chaos."

She paused.

"It is preposterous to ask those students to perform at the same level as a student at Exeter," Simmons said.

Simmons recognizes that those students need someone to look up to, just as she did. Besides her teachers, Simmons has heroes that continue to touch her life: her mother and grandmother ...Her friend author Toni Morrison, and one you may not expect for an Ivy League university president.

"Tina Turner," she said.

Tina Turner?

"Yes," Simmons said. "If I could be Tina Turner and all that hair strutting around on stage it would be sensational. It really would be, and there have been moments when I have goten in front of a mirror and tried to do that thing. It doesn't work, but I've tried."

And like Turner, who often repeats the same line before concert audiences, Simmons said she is standing before Brown University with a question — are you ready for me?

"I am indeed saying that," Simmons said. "Yes."

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