Mary Jennings, 74, died March 1, 2014, as a result of complications from a
series of debilitating strokes. She was born in New York, N.Y. on Feb.
18, 1940, the second of five children of Betty M. and Robert E. Jennings. After
a move to Alabama for the beginnings of our space program, she graduated
from Huntsville High School and the University of Alabama with a degree in
music. While there, she was a member of The Million Dollar Band. She
completed her master’s in music theory in 1969. At the beginning of her
career, she taught music in Pensacola schools. She taught voice, music
theory, and chorus at Baldwin State College in Alabama and the same at
Meridian College. Then she spent many years as the copy editor of the
Meridian (Miss.) Star. While in Meridian, she volunteered her
considerable musical skills with the Meridian Symphony Orchestra and served
as director of the Meridian Choral Society. She was proud of the fact that
she was on the Enemies List of The White Citizens’ Council in Mississippi,
for her work with black students in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She
finished her career as the assistant director of communications and the
communications advisor for the student newspaper and yearbook at the
University of North Alabama in Florence.
