Nan Nelle Bright Gillis was born in Choctaw County, Mississippi, to Walter and Myrtle Bright in 1930. She was Baptist by faith. She married Thad “Tater” Gillis in 1954. In their younger years, Tater and Nan Nelle were avid square dancers and members of the Jolly Squares. Mrs. Gillis survived polio in 1957. She died at Oktibbeha County Hospital on January 21, 2025. Mrs. Gillis was a 1953 graduate of Mississippi State University where she pledged Zeta Tau Alpha. Upon graduation, she worked at the Starkville Depot for the GMO railroad until its closure in 1972. She then worked as assistant to the Dean of Educational Psychology at Mississippi State University until her retirement in 1997. Countless undergraduate and graduate students attribute their successes to her help and encouragement over the years, including Maxie Kohler Birmingham, AL and Randy M. Phillips, deceased, Tuscaloosa, AL. Her smile, when it came, was well deserved by its recipient, and came with a twinkle in her eyes. She was a no-nonsense, old school, southern lady and was described “sharp as a tack” until her final days. She was a fountain of information and a huge sports fan. For many years, she was a season ticket holder for MSU football games and in her later years, she never missed a televised MSU game of any sport. She was a second mother to her sister’s youngest two children, Deborah and Michael. She and her sister, Della, were inseparable for the 48 years during which they lived two blocks from one another.
She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, sisters Mildred Nagle of Middlesboro, KY and Della Bruce, brother Joe Bright and nephew MB Bruce all of Starkville, MS.
She is survived by her nephew Marion “Bubba” Wilkerson (Holli) and his family West Point, MS, her nieces Sandra Bruce Highers (Alan) Henderson, TN and family, Deborah Bruce Phillips-Hurst (George) Northport, Al and extended family, niece Jo Lynn Bright Memphis, TN, and her friend since kindergarten (1935), Neva Nan Blake Hernando, MS.
Visitation is scheduled for Friday, January 24, 2025 from 2:00-3:00 P.M. at Welch Funeral Home in Starkville, MS, with the funeral service immediately following in the funeral home chapel. Rev. Clifton Curtis will conduct the service. Burial will be in Memorial Garden Park Cemetery in Starkville.
Honorary pallbearers are her great nephew, Gill Wilkerson; caring aides Terceira, Linda and others and the Oktibbeha County Hospital ER and ICU doctors and nurses.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you donate in her name to Oktibbeha County Animal Shelter.
