Contact: Maridith Geuder
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A new scholarship at Mississippi State University is being established specifically to benefit MSU students from two Delta counties.
Offered in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the Frank T. and Virginia Brumfield and Harris S. and Margaret M. Swayze Endowed Scholarship will be awarded to qualified students from Sunflower and Yazoo counties.
The scholarship was established anonymously in June to honor the late couples for whom it is named, both of whom headed longtime farming and cattle operations in their respective counties.
"The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is pleased that the legacies of these two families, who have contributed so much to Mississippi agriculture, are being commemorated through this scholarship," said Jud Skelton, development director for the college. "Through the scholarship, students without the means to earn a college education will have help in achieving that goal."
Frank and Virginia Brumfield moved to Inverness in 1927, where Mr. Brumfield subsequently established a successful farming operation. He began his farming career after attending then-Mississippi A&M for three years, and he remained active in the MSU Alumni Association throughout his life.
Committed to public service, Brumfield became a director and supporter of organizations that included the Federal Land Bank, Delta Electric Power Association, Staplcotn Cooperative, and Duncan Gin. Recognizing his accomplishments, Progressive Farmer magazine named Brumfield its "Man of the Year" in Mississippi agriculture in 1976.
Married in 1938, Harris and Margaret Swayze established the Swayze Home Place on property in Yazoo County that has been in the family since 1832. In addition to his farming enterprises, Swayze was recognized throughout the South for his commercial and purebred cattle herds.
Among his business and public service accomplishments, he was president and owner of Midway Gin Company, president of the Mississippi Cattleman's Association and the Delta Council, and director of the Bank of Yazoo County and Staplcotn Cooperative. Swayze was named Progressive Farmer's "Man of the Year" in 1959.
The Frank T. and Virginia Brumfield and Harris S. and Margaret M. Swayze Endowed Scholarship is an open fund in the MSU Foundation which may be increased through additional contributions.
For more information, telephone Jud Skelton at 662-325-0643.