22065 total results

Oral history.; Dr. Antone Walter Tannehill, Jr., was born May 22, 1929, in New Orleans, Louisiana, but grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He attended Vanderbilt University and Duke University Medical School. He served an internship at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia, and then in the United States Air Force as a medical officer. Dr. Tannehill practiced medicine in Mississippi from 1964 until his retirement in 1997. He has been awarded several medical and civic awards.

Oral history.; Mr. Spain was born in 1927 in Ohio and moved with his family to Mississippi in 1930. While still a high school student, he helped build and operate a local AM radio station. Having graduated with honors from Mississippi State University, he entered the television industry, developing its technology and working for various companies throughout the United States. He moved on to form his own companies and television stations. Today, Mr. Spain continues ownership of WTVA, Microwave Service Company and WMDN Television.

Oral history.; Mr. Ulysses Sims was born on May 31, 1918, in Mendenhall, Mississippi and after his parents died was raised by his grandparents. In 1936, he entered the Piney Woods School of Mississippi, working to pay his own way through school. Mr. Sims graduated as valedictorian of his class. After two years at Rust College, he entered World War II and served overseas. After returning to the United States, he earned his degree from Rust College. His career in Mississippi schools included being both a teacher and an administrator. For his volunteer work with the Boy Scouts of America, Mr. Sims received the Silver Beaver Award.

Oral history.; Mr. Balfour William Ruff Sr. was born March 31, 1923, in Jackson, Mississippi. He moved to Tupelo at a young age and attended its public schools. For many years he operated the Ruff Dairy Farm, the first in the Tupelo area to pasteurize and homogenize milk. After that, he farmed and ran a beef cattle operation. He was an active member of several area farm organizations. He was a member of the board of directors of the Federal Land Bank, and an original founder of the Town Creek Master Watershed. He was a founder and treasurer of the North Lee Rural Water Association. A land developer, he developed the neighborhood between Thomas Street and Lawndale Drive, and the Hillplace Development in Tupelo, Mississippi. He was a co-owner and founder of the Big Oaks Country Club golf course and residential development. He was a longtime member of St. Luke United Methodist Church in Tupelo and the Men's Breakfast Club. Mr. Ruff passed away on February 9, 2000.

Oral history.; Mrs. Lodie Marie Robinson-Cyrille was born on August 21, 1951 in Biloxi, Mississippi. As a child, she remembers meeting people from various cultures, including Africans; many were studying or serving at Keesler Air Force Base. Additionally she recalls an influence from the French culture, still intact since the earliest settlement of Biloxi. She and her siblings grew up in the segregated South during the Jim Crow era. Childhood was a time when some of their household's income was earned by catching crabs from the Gulf of Mexico or picking pecans. During the summer of 1964, Mrs. Robinson-Cyrille attended freedom school. After 1964, she attended school in Connecticut through tenth grade. She acquired her high school diploma through GED testing, going on to California State from which she graduated in 1979. In 1987, she was graduated from Southern University Law School.

Oral history.; Mr. Harold Ray Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on October 5, 1948. In 1968 he was drafted into the Army and served in Vietnam for four years. Mr. Presley married and became the father of two sons and a daughter. Elvis Presley was his second cousin. In 1993 he was elected sheriff of Lee County. During his tenure as sheriff, Mr. Presley received numerous awards and initiated the DARE Program, among other activities, to tackle illegal drug sales and use. Mr. Presley died on July 6, 2001, in a shootout with a kidnapping suspect. Mr. Presley pushed his deputy out of the line of fire, almost certainly saving him from injury or death.

Oral history.; Mr. Aaron Morgan was born December 18, 1909. He attended Oak Hill School through the seventh grade and then attended Auburn Consolidated Schools, driving a covered wagon with a pair of mules as a school ";bus."; He finished high school on a basketball scholarship to Tupelo Military Institute. He earned his B.S. degree from Mississippi State University and his M.A. degree from the University of Mississippi. Mr. Morgan worked as a teacher and then as a school administrator. He spent seventeen years on the Tupelo Public School District school board, eleven of those years as the chair. He has held many positions of service. Throughout his career, Mr. Morgan has received a number of awards and honors.

Oral history.; Mr. Augustus (Gus) Ashby Sr. was born in 1924, in Washington, D.C. and moved to Tupelo where he became active in the local church. After high school, he attended college in Holly Springs and Okolona, Mississippi. He was a member of the Henry Hampton Elks Lodge Number 782 and served as its Exalted Ruler. He was also president of the Tupelo Civil Improvement Club and for his services was awarded the Golden Heritage Award from the NAACP as well as the Special Service Award from the Black Business Association of Mississippi. He was a veteran of World War II and worked at the Day-Brite Lighting Company. With his wife, he ran Ashby's Cash Grocery Store.

Oral history.; Mr. John Sherman Crubaugh was born April 12, 1913. During his college years at Mississippi State, from 1931, he worked to pay for his education. After he received a B.S. degree and an M.Ed. degree from Mississippi State University, Mr. Crubaugh taught at various high schools. Additionally, Mr. Crubaugh earned an M.Ed. Degree from George Peabody College in Nashville. In 1948, Mr. Crubaugh became the first dean of Itawamba Junior College. In 1960, he became the second president of Itawamba Junior College, in which position he served for twelve years. In 1965, Mr. Crubaugh was instrumental in establishing a satellite campus of Itawamba Junior College in Tupelo, Mississippi. Mr. Crubaugh passed away Wednesday, January 19, 2000, at the North Mississippi Medical Center. He was a member of the Mississippi Coaches Hall of Fame and a member of Brewer United Methodist Church where he held several offices and taught Sunday school. He was a thirty-second degree Mason and a Shriner.

Oral history.; Mr. Palmer E. Foster was born in Jackson, Tennessee, and moved with his family to Ripley, Mississippi. After his high school graduation, he spent four years in the Army during World War II. Then he entered Rust College and in 1949 began teaching biology and chemistry, as well as coaching football in the Columbus City School System. In 1951 he became a full-time Boy Scout Executive, covering several counties where he has been working for thirty-six years until his retirement in 1987. Mr. Palmer has been active in the NAACP, Phi Beta Sigma, and the American Legion. He was Citizen of the Year, City of Tupelo in 1995, a deacon of Springhill M.B.C., and Trustee of the Springhill District Association.

Oral history.; Mrs. Varnell Homan was born on February 5, 1925, in Mooreville, Mississippi. In 1936, the year of Tupelo's worst tornado, she moved to Shannon, Mississippi. In 1942 she married Elkin P. Homan, and they were farmers. To make a living doing something she enjoyed, Mrs. Homan became a hairdresser; later she opened her own hairdressing school. Mrs. Homan enjoys a close relationship with her children and is very active in her church.

Oral history.; Reverend Robert James Jamison was born on May 28, 1936, and lived in both St. Louis, Missouri, and the community of Shake Rag in Tupelo, Mississippi. Reverend Jamison earned money in high school from carpentry and upon graduation, he married. He attended Mississippi Industrial College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on an athletic scholarship. After graduating he taught school and then attended several universities to attain advanced degrees including a Master of Divinity degree from Memphis Theological Seminary in Memphis, Tennessee. When he returned to Mississippi, Reverend Jamison became a Head Start director with Lift, Incorporated, and eventually became the first African American to run for alderman of Ward Four. Additionally, he worked to establish the NAACP in Tupelo. Later, he became the assistant vice president of the regional Community Action Agency.

Oral history.; Ms. Frances Elkin Joyner was born on November 23, 1909, in Tupelo, Mississippi. She graduated from Tupelo High School and then attended National Park Seminary in Forest Glen, Maryland. She married Ernest Love Joyner, Jr. just months after the worst tornado in Tupelo's history. She and her husband owned and operated manufacturing plants in Mississippi that made shirts for New York markets. She is a member of the Presbyterian faith; served as the treasurer of the Red Cross; and has volunteered in service work for her community in Tupelo throughout her life there.

Oral history.; Ms. Marjorie Milam was born on September 17, 1916, in Tupelo, Mississippi. Her father, Mr. L.G. Milam, Sr. had a grocery store for a number of years; then he founded Milam and Duncan Brokers. Her mother founded Milam Manufacturing Company. Ms. Milam attended Mississippi State College for Women and the University of Tennessee where she majored in bookkeeping. For eight years she worked for American Airlines, and then returned to Tupelo.

Oral history.; Dr. S. Jay McDuffie was born in Nettleton, Mississippi, and grew up in Tupelo. He earned a B.S. degree at Mississippi State University, entered the U.S. Public Health Service during World War II and later earned his medical certificate at the University of Mississippi. After finishing his M.D. degree and his clinical work at the University of Tennessee, Dr. McDuffie opened a medical clinic in Nettleton where he has worked ever since. He was the executive director of the Northeast Mississippi Medical Society for nine years. He worked with LIFT to provide free medical services to the needy and is now the medical director of the Mississippi State Hospital Mental Division.