UM Alumna, Respected Journalist Creates Scholarship Endowment

Ford's distinguished career began when she covered James Meredith's enrollment at the university for United Press International. She worked as a reporter and political analyst, including service with UPI through 1985 and as editor of the influential newsletter Inside Alabama Politics from the mid-1980s to 2010.

The Charleston native became a lifelong advocate for education and journalism. Her gift establishes the Robert, Nona and Bessie Ford Scholarship Endowment Fund, which also honors her parents. It is valued at more than $1.2 million.

"It makes a lot of sense for Bessie to want to help other students," said T.J. Potts, president of PMT Publishing Co., in Mobile, Ala., and Ford's longtime publisher and friend. "Bessie came from very modest circumstances and went off to Ole Miss all on her own, wearing clothes sewn by her mother.

"She was very committed to helping the people of Charleston and Tallahatchie County. She loved Mississippi and Ole Miss, so it's no surprise that she would want her legacy to benefit students there."

Ford died in August 2022 in Huntsville, Alabama. She was valedictorian of her class at East Tallahatchie High School and enrolled at UM as a journalism student in fall 1959.

Her break came when UPI hired her as a student to report on Meredith's enrollment in October 1962. Soon after, the news agency offered her a job in its Jackson bureau and her professional career began.

She moved to the Memphis bureau briefly in 1968, but UPI promoted her as its first female bureau chief in 1969 in Montgomery, Alabama. She worked there until 1985, when she became editor and writer of Inside Alabama Politics, a weekly newsletter that became a must-read publication for elected officials and power brokers in the state Capitol.

"Bessie was the most well-connected journalist in Alabama for 20 to 30 years," Potts said. "In terms of having sources that she could absolutely count on, she was way ahead of anybody else working in Alabama.

"She was tough as hell and she didn't take prisoners. By that, I mean she was right down the middle and didn't take sides or have a particular lean in her reporting. She was tough, but she was always fair."

She also wrote "Business & Politics," a column that ran in Business Alabama magazine from its inaugural issue in January 1986 until she retired in 2010. She also covered former Alabama Gov. George Wallace extensively and was considered an expert on his political and personal life.

"Bessie was a great judge of character," Potts said. "She judged politicians by the kind of people they were. She watched how people behaved and figured out why they reacted to things the way they did, and she learned a lot about their true character that way."

Scholarship recipients will be selected based on financial need, as determined by the university's Office of Financial Aid. The endowment will prioritize students from Tallahatchie County who plan to pursue full-time undergraduate studies.

"Her legacy will empower generations of students from her hometown region to access higher education to further support their academic and career ambitions," said Coleman Grimmett, the university's senior director for business operations.

For more information about the Robert, Nona and Bessie Ford Scholarship Endowment Fund, contact the Office of Financial Aid at 1-800-891-4596 or click here. For information about gift planning and estates, contact Marc Littlecott at marcplan@olemiss.edu or click here.

Top: UM alumna Bessie Ford loved her time at Ole Miss, and her legacy will live on at the university through the Robert, Nona and Bessie Ford Scholarship Endowment Fund. The endowment, valued at $1.2 million will help students with financial need to earn their degrees, with priority given to students from Tallahatchie County. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services