Former MAFES employee, MSU friend dies at 92

Jean Buchanan Hartley died Sunday, November 24, at the Baptist Medical Center in Jackson. She was 92 and the widow of Bob Hartley, longtime Mississippi State University sports information director and assistant athletic director for media relations.

A Nettleton native, she attended Mississippi State College for Women, now Mississippi University for Women, before graduating in 1946 from the University of Mississippi with a bachelor’s degree in education. Following graduation, she was executive secretary for the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station on the MSU campus.

Married for 45 years, Jean and Bob were the parents of three daughters, Pamela, Patti and Peggy, all MSU alumnae. Bob Hartley, athletic department publicist nearly four decades, died in 1997. Since 2006, Jean Hartley had been residing in Ridgeland.

Welch Funeral Home of Starkville is in charge of arrangements. To express condolences or view the obituary, visit www.welchfuneralhomes.com/book-of-memories/1729341/Hartley-Jean/index.php.