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96 Year-Old Graduate Continues to Financially Support Delta State

By January 4, 2010General

 
Elizabeth Bryson Gardner, a 1936 graduate of Delta State, recently made her yearly gift to the Delta State Annual Fund which supports the greatest needs of the university including helping deserving students complete their degree.

 

 

 

In 1998, at the age of 85, Ruth Elizabeth Bryson Gardner made her first gift to Delta State University. Eleven years later, she continues to support her alma mater by making her yearly gift to the Delta State Annual Fund.

A native of Guntown, Gardner was born on December 15, 1913, and was the second of six children. She is the only one of her siblings to receive a bachelor’s and master’s degree. Gardner graduated second in a class of about 15 from high school in 1931. She credits her history teacher, Miss Donnie Tate, for inspiring her to want to go to college and be a teacher.

Gardner attended Sunflower Junior College (presently Mississippi Delta Community College) on scholarship, graduating first out of a class of ninety-nine, and was named valedictorian. She stayed at home until the spring quarter when the government started the National Youth Association, furnishing money for students to go to school. Gardner was then financially able to enroll in Delta Teachers College (presently Delta State University) and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Education with minors in English and History in 1936.

While teaching at Lynn Consolidated School in 1936, she began dating John Arvy Gardner. They married on October 8, 1938. A 1934 graduate of Delta State, John Gardner earned a master’s degree from the University of Mississippi in 1938. He passed away in 1998 in Fort Worth, Texas after spending 20 years as a math professor at Arlington State College.

Elizabeth Gardner worked as an educator in Lynn Consolidated School, taught in Rolling Fork, substituted in Winona public schools, and taught in Crosby, Dexter, Starkville, Woodville, and Arlington Texas. She retired in 1977. She earned her master’s degree in 1977 from Texas Wesleyan University.

John and Elizabeth were proud that their three children all earned a college degree. Their daughter Ruth said her parents were so proud to live long enough “to see their children get an education so that neither they, nor their children will ever have to be dirt farmers.”

It is for the same reason that Elizabeth, at the age of 96, is still supporting higher education through her annual fund gifts to Delta State University. She is one of the oldest donors to the university as well as one of the oldest living graduates. Her annual fund gifts enable deserving students to earn their college degree.

“This is the time of year when people begin making plans for their year-end charitable giving,” said Keith Fulcher, executive director of the Delta State Alumni/Foundation. “If you would like to join Elizabeth as a donor to the Delta State Annual Fund and help a deserving student complete their degree, mail your tax-deductible gift to Box 3141 Delta State University, Cleveland, MS 38733.” We hope that Elizabeth’s example will be an inspiration for other alumni and friends to follow her example.”

 
Online gifts may also be made at the secure website https://www.deltastate.edu/pages/481.asp or call 662-719-1732.