Clant M. Seay, 76, a lawyer and forceful advocate for animal rights,
died Monday, March 6, in Oxford.
He was a native of Jackson and graduated from Murrah High School
in 1964 and Ole Miss in 1968. He received his law degree from Ole Miss in
1971.
He is survived by Glimmer, a Tennessee Walking Horse that he
rescued. He also is survived by his sister, Ethel Seay of Jackson, and his
brother, Sam Seay of Jackson, his nephew, Louis Martin of Baton Rouge,
La., and his niece, Kelly Mann of Macon, Ga. He was predeceased by his
parents, Clant M. Seay Sr., and Louise Peeler Seay.
At Ole Miss, he was chairman of the School Spirit Committee. One
friend remembers that he took home the Egg Bowl trophy for a few days for
“safekeeping”–all part of his job. He was also a member of the Student
Senate and in 1968 he was named to Who’s Who Among Students in
American Universities and Colleges. In his freshman year, he was a
manager for the Ole Miss football team, a job his father also held when he
was at Ole Miss.
For many years, Clant served as the spotter for the Ole Miss football
radio network with play-by-play announcer Stan Torgerson.
He served in the U.S. Army.
Early in his career, he worked in Charles Sullivan’s unsuccessful
campaign for governor in 1971. He ran for Congress in 1972. He also
worked in the office of Mississippi Attorney General A.F. Summer.
Clant was best known for his outspoken opinions and causes that he
embraced. Those opinions got him banned from the Ole Miss Spirit
message board. (He posted under the handle of jhvaught.) In the last 10
years of his life, he found himself in confrontations and court suits with
horse owners and trainers over issues relating to “soring” of Tennessee
Walking Horses.
He was a combination lawyer-journalist-photographer-blogger-
lobbyist-advocate, a collection of talents that confounded and often
enraged his critics.
Because he was an independent lawyer, he was free to pursue his
interests wherever they took him.
For instance, in 2017 he traveled to Cincinnati to observe the
hearings by the NCAA Committee on Infractions against the Ole Miss
football team and coach Hugh Freeze. The hearing was closed to the
public and the press, but Clant sat in the lobby of the Embassy Suites for
two days watching who was going into and out of the hearing room. His
persistence attracted the attention of Clarion-Ledger sports writer Antonio
Morales:
“With his digital camera, he took photos of Hugh Freeze, Jeff Vitter
and Ross Bjork, among others, and posted them on the RebelGrove’s
message board. He acted professionally. He didn’t attempt to interact with
any of the involved parties. He was there to document what he thought was
a historic event.”
Morales also quoted Ole Miss Spirit editor Ben Garrett about Clant: “If
you need to know anything about jhvaught, it’s that he is obsessed with Ole
Miss. But also he’s not afraid to stand firmly behind his stances because
he’s been banned from the Ole Miss Spirit message boards, immediately
went to RebelGrove and started with the same shtick . . .and now he’s here
(in Cincinnati). That’s surreal.”
It’s probably a stretch to say Clant was “obsessed” with Ole Miss.
But when Clant turned his attention to the “soring” of Tennessee
Walking Horses, it turned into an all-out, fulltime commitment. “Obsession”
might be an understatement.
Clant’s view was that it was impossible for horses to lift their legs
high (big lick) without having their hooves or legs abused. He started a blog
called Billygoboy.com and he began posting pictures and commentary from
events. His presence at those events led to many angry confrontations with
horse owners, but he insisted, with the aid of court orders when necessary,
that he had a right to attend events that were on public property.
Tawnee Preisner, president of the Horse Plus Humane Society,
credited Clant as being one of the main leaders in getting the anti-soring
law changed.
She wrote this about Clant on her website: “This guy has worked
absolutely tirelessly. He has organized protests at every Big Lick show he
can. He made a huge citizens campaign against the abuse. He meets the
big lickers on their turf and goes head to head against them. He’s been
harassed, threatened and assaulted because of his work, but he kept right
on.”
Clant mounted this campaign at both the state and national levels. He
was proud of recruiting or encouraging such diverse personalities as Nancy
Pelosi and Priscilla Presley to the cause.
Critics or casual observers may have viewed Clant as eccentric or
single-minded, but his true friends valued him as smart, principled and
engagingly unique.
A memorial service will be held Thursday March 23, 2023 at 2:00 PM at the Overby Center
for Southern Journalism and Politics on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford.
Holland Funeral Directors-Tupelo Chapel (662 840 5000) is honored to be severing their friends. Condolences may be e mailed to hollandfuneraldirectors@comcast.net
