Coming Home to Mississippi

Mary Donnelly Haskell

205 MaryDonnellyHaskell Mary Donnelly Haskell, born in Beaumont, Texas, came to Ole Miss in the fall of 1976, where she met her future husband, Sam Haskell. She pledged Chi Omega sorority, represented Ole Miss in the Miss Mississippi Pageant, and won the crown. After completing her year as Miss Mississippi and graduating from Ole Miss in 1981, she moved to Los Angeles, married Sam the following year, and went on to have a successful television and recording career. She and her husband live in Oxford and are the parents of two children. W hen people ask me where I’m from, I usually answer: “I was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, but my mother’s people are from Alabama, so I spent a great deal of time there growing up—but I’m from Mississippi.” In 1976, following in the steps of my older sister, Pride (who was at Ole Miss in the late sixties), I traveled to Oxford from my hometown of Beaumont, Texas, and entered the freshman class as a music major. Looking back,I see that so much of the path my future would take was defined by events that first year. First, I met my husband, Sam, just before classes started (in fact, he was my very first date at Ole Miss). I think the fact that I fell in love with and married a“Mississippi boy” could in itself qualify me as an adopted Mississippian. But there is another significant event that also played a big part in my deep connection to the people of this wonderful state. At the beginning of the second semester, I was encouraged to enter the Miss University Pageant by my sorority, Chi Omega. I was for- 206 mary donnelly haskell tunate enough to win that title and then represent Ole Miss in the Miss Mississippi Pageant that summer. At the age of eighteen, I was crowned Miss Mississippi and proudly headed to Atlantic City for the Miss America Pageant to represent my state! It was an amazing experience competing at Miss America, but even more wonderful was the opportunity I had to come back here and travel the state that year . . . in every town I visited, I experienced the hospitality and grace that is Mississippi. It think it would be impossible to travel this state as I did and not feel as though you are at the very least, an adopted Mississippian . My memories of that time and the pride I take in being a former Miss Mississippi are so very dear to me. By the time I graduated from Ole Miss at the end of 1980, Sam had been in Los Angeles for several years and established his career with the William Morris Agency in Beverly Hills. I had the benefit of joining him in an already tight-knit circle of fellow Mississippians who were working in Hollywood at the time. What a difference that made in feeling part of a community—the “Mississippi Mafia” they called it—and that fellowship made for many an old fashioned potluck dinner or home-away-from-home Thanksgiving meal! Sam and I had talked so often when we were dating at Ole Miss about following our dreams out to California, and there we were, surrounded by all the possibilities and challenges of lives and careers in the entertainment industry. We were blessed beyond words to live out those dreams for the almost thirty years we were in Los Angeles. We raised our children in the community of Encino, had a wonderful church family at Bel Air Presbyterian Church, and made many great friends, but at the same time we remained deeply connected to our Mississippi roots through the university,the Miss Mississippi Pageant, and most of all our family and friends. I’ve always said that we may have lived all those years in California, but in a lot of ways, we never left Mississippi! When our children reached an age where we could seriously start thinking about where we wanted to spend our “golden years,” there was no hesitation—it was always Mississippi—and more specifically, Oxford. We had always thought that it would be a dream come true mary donnelly haskell 207 to retire back where our life together began, at Ole Miss. And so the process began. Working with our dear friend Frank Tindall, we found the land and...