{"id":82784,"date":"2019-02-13T11:59:46","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T17:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/?p=82784"},"modified":"2019-02-13T11:59:46","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T17:59:46","slug":"delta-state-university-receives-another-substantial-gift-from-alumna-and-longtime-supporter-margaret-walker-hays-this-time-for-campus-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2019\/02\/delta-state-university-receives-another-substantial-gift-from-alumna-and-longtime-supporter-margaret-walker-hays-this-time-for-campus-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Delta State University Receives Another Substantial Gift from Alumna and Longtime Supporter Margaret Walker Hays, This Time for Campus Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

Delta State University recently received another substantial gift from alumna Margaret Walker Hays. The six-figure contribution, designated for the Delta Music Institute\u2019s Mobile Music Lab and for Delta State\u2019s choir program, marks the 30th<\/sup> time the benefactress from Leland, Miss., has given to her alma mater over the past 15 years. <\/p>\n

\u201cMusic is one of the things in life that can transport us from the mundane to the ethereal, even momentarily,\u201d said Hays about the inspiration behind her latest example of philanthropy for Delta State, which is situated in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, birthplace of American music. She and her late husband of 46 years and high school sweetheart, George Rea Walker, a cotton seed executive, enjoyed singing with church choirs in Leland and Greenville and with the area American Red Cross chorus. \u201cI am just thrilled with anything I can do to help students at Delta State who are majoring in the performing arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hays graduated from Delta State in 1967 with a B.A. in English and history and with a perfect 4.0 GPA. A former Delta State Foundation board member, she has given generously to many of Delta State\u2019s wide-ranging efforts: the Bologna Performing Arts Center, the Annual Fund, President William N. LaForge\u2019s Inauguration Scholarship Fund, the DSU Foundation Scholarship Fund, and the John Grisham baseball fundraising event. Hays lives in Leland with her second husband, Dr. Jimmy Hays, a cardiologist who founded the Jackson (Miss.) Heart Clinic and currently works at Cardiovascular Physicians in Greenville, and whom she married in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cMargaret Walker Hays has perfected the art of both paying back and paying forward to her alma mater,\u201d said President LaForge. \u201cDelta State is very fortunate to have such a loyal alumna and supporter who, time and time again, has demonstrated the importance of investing in the university and our students. I am very grateful to Margaret for her terrific support for programs, projects, and scholarships that benefit our students and the Delta.\u201d<\/p>\n

DMI\u2019s Mobile Music Lab is an afterschool educational outreach program housed in a 26-foot customized bus that contains a recording studio and production studio. Previous grant funding was coming to a conclusion, \u201cand Margaret\u2019s generous gift came at the perfect time,\u201d said DMI Director Tricia Walker. \u201cThe DMI Mobile Music Lab allows us to work with groups of students to encourage the use of their voices as a means of expression through songwriting, audio recording, and digital media arts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The choral program used its portion of the Hays\u2019 gift to fund a\u00a0performance of Handel\u2019s Messiah<\/em> at the Bologna Performing Arts Center, featuring DSU students and faculty, along with\u00a0members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra; a DSU Chorale\u00a0appearance at the Mississippi American Choral Directors Association conference at the University of Southern Mississippi; and\u00a0two performance tours of the DSU Chorale through\u00a0Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida, explained Dr. Karen Fosheim, chair of the Department of Music.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, two outstanding students were named Margaret Walker\u00a0Vocal Scholars and given a four-year choral scholarship,\u201d she added. \u201cThese are life-changing and life-expanding experiences that would not be possible without Margaret\u2019s support.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Delta State University recently received another substantial gift from alumna Margaret Walker Hays. The six-figure contribution, designated for the Delta Music Institute\u2019s Mobile Music Lab and for Delta State\u2019s choir…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":566,"featured_media":82785,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,93,1912],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni","category-foundation","category-press-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82786,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82784\/revisions\/82786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}