Obituaries 7/7/2015

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Albert Gray Sr.
BATESVILLE–– Albert “Bubba” Gray, Sr., 76, died Thursday, July 2, 2015, at his residence.

Services were held Sunday at Wells Funeral Home. Interment was at Forrest Memorial Park.

Gray was born June 19, 1939 in Panola County to the late Willie Freeman Gray and Myrtle Ruth Taylor Gray. He was a riverboat captain for many years and eventually retired from the industry. He was a member of Enon Baptist Church and Panola Masons Lodge #66.

Sign up for our daily email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

He was preceded in death by his wife, Ginger Gray.

Survivors include: two daughters, Rosa Gray Pettit of Batesville and Sonya Gray Brown of Sardis; one son; Albert Lee Gray Jr. of Crowder; one sister; Rita Mottz of Paris; one brother, Dwight Rhyne of Houston; six grandchildren and eight grandchildren.

The family requests that memorial contributions be made to Enon Baptist Church 7216 Dummyline Rd. Batesville, MS 38606 or LeBonheur Children’s Medical Center, 50 North Dunlap Memphis, TN 38103-9984 or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, Tenn. 38105-1905.

William Ralph “Bill” Meredith Jr.
GREENVILLE––William Ralph “Bill” Meredith Jr., formerly of Batesville, died Thursday, July 2, 2015, at his residence.

Services were held Saturday at the First Baptist Church in Greenville.  Dr. James Nichols officiated. Burial was in Batesville Magnolia Cemetery. Boone Funeral Home in Greenville had charge.

He was the son of the late Ralph and Ruby Meredith of Batesville. After graduating from Batesville High School, he attended Sunflower Junior College in Moorhead on a basketball scholarship. His education was interrupted when he was drafted into the military during the Korean War.

After the war, he received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in agronomy from Mississippi State. He was inducted into Alpha Zeta honorary society.

 He earned a Ph.D. in plant breeding at Cornell University and was inducted into Phi Kappa Phi honorary society.

He taught two years at Mississippi State before moving to the Delta in 1964 to begin a career as a research scientist for the United States Agricultural Research Service. He spoke at  cotton conferences in Argentina, Australia, Greece, Mexico and India.

He was the only twice-awarded recipient of the Cotton Genetics Award presented by Cotton, Inc. He was recognized as the Senior Scientist of the Year for U.S. Agricultural Research Service and was nominated for the ARS Hall of Fame.

He served as the chairman for the National Cotton Variety Testing Program’s Regional High Quality Test for over 40 years.

He was an associate editor of Crop Science Journal. He was a Fellow of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

During his time at the Jamie Whitten Research Center, he was the research leader for cotton and soybeans and location coordinator. He directed cotton and soybean research at Stoneville, New Orleans and Jackson, Tenn.

 He served as a deacon chairman, finance chairman and Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Greenville and participated in  mission trips to Montana, Alaska, and Belarus. He was the leader of the men’s class for Community Bible Study.

 Survivors include: his wife of 60 years, Jerry Burnett Meredith; four daughters, Lauren Stokes of Columbus, Kathie Eagles of Vicksburg, Diane Meredith of Madison, and Pat Cox of Memphis; eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to First Baptist Church, 407 Main Street, P. O. Box 1163, Greenville, MS  38701.