William Chapman Sullivan (1911 - 2000)

Tom, although he was clearly familiar with it. He did take me to visit relatives in Sullivan's Hollow a number of times. We visited my uncle, Kiley; my aunt Scrap; my aunt Minnie; and my aunt Climmie.

We were sitting on the porch at Aunt Scrap's home with my Aunt Lillian when she received the call saying that her husband had died. We also attend a "hog killin'" at Aunt Scrap's house in her yard where, as a child, I watched the adults making pork sausage. We also visited numerous time the chicken houses out behind Aunt Scrap's home, and it was on one of those walks out to the chicken houses that Pop gave me my first chance to pick cottin' from one of the plants in the adjacent field. I remember being at Aunt Scrap's house when she made dinner on a Sunday when "the preacher" was coming to join us. She killed a chicken and cooked it. I remember seeing the chicken run around in the back yard with a broken neck, which gives me great chagrin to recall. Aunt Scrap and my father found that to be a humorous scene for me to witness. As a child, I didn't know what to make of it, but I do now, writing this as an adult of age 69. Mississippi could be a brutal place, but I am convinced that ignorance was a key factor affecting what my relatives viewed as appropriate behavior.

I do know that my father was ahead of his time in that he refused to support the KKK and John Birch Society, and he believed that no one should be turned away from the church because of the color of their skin. He was determined to lead our school community peacefully though the process of "school integration" when it occurred during my sophomore year in high school at Warren Central High School. I have taken my father's example to heart in my own views or racism and bigotry. I will never forget the time I looked out the door of the teacher's home where we lived and saw a cross burning out on the road nearby. It was a scary time in the late 1960's, but my rather laughed and said he would not be intimidated.

Unfortunately, as he grew older, his views digressed and we argued frequently about the prevailing views in our home state. I left for graduate school in New York City in the early 1980s. His cognitive capacities declined and I was appalled by some of the things he had to say in his later years. He declined into an abusive white male, but I have never forgotten the role model he gave me when he was at the peak of his professional life as head of the schools.

Education: Bachelors Degree, Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi; Masters Degree, University of Mississippi, Oxford Mississippi Majors: Religion and History

He was principal of Culkin Academy HIgh School and Administrative Superintendent of Warren Central High School. He enjoyed his role as a community leader, educator and election polling site official.

He was an avid football fan for Ole Miss and he loved fishing and gardening. Having been raised on a large farm in Sullivan's Hollow, Smith County, Mississippi, he enjoyed raising animals as well as growing various crops annually in his very large garden. As the son of a farmer, he had learned to predict the weather by watching the sky which he did on a daily basis.

He was based in San Angelo, Texas during World War II where he was an assistant to the U.S. Army base head officer. His wife, Callie Louise Knight Sullivan, served as the base librarian. After the War ended, they returned to Mississippi and settled in Vicksburg where they remained for the rest of their lives.