Ann Abadie, Associate Director Emerita of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, died on Tuesday at 85.

“The lights of Oxford and Ole Miss dimmed last night with the passing of Ann Abadie,” said Oxonian Kaye Bryant Wednesday. “I am grateful for having known her.”

Abadie received her bachelor’s degree in English and History from Wake Forest University. She earned her doctorate in English from the University of Mississippi, where she later served on the committee that planned the Center for the Study of Southern Culture in 1977.

Since then, she has served in crucial roles, including associate director of the CSSC and associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture and the Mississippi Encyclopedia.

She was a member of the founding committee of the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference and co-editor of its annual volumes of proceedings from 1974 to 2012. She was also a founder of the Oxford Conference for the Book, associate coeditor of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, the 24-volume New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, and the Mississippi Encyclopedia.

An astute grammarian, she assisted others with the development of literary and artistic projects. Her dedication was recognized with the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters’ Noel Polk Lifetime Achievement Award and with the Southern Foodways Alliance’s Craig Claiborne Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ethel Scurlock, Dean of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College said on social media that she once asked Abadie if she planned on resting during her retirement.

“She told me she had no plans of slowing down because she had too much important work to do, Scurlock wrote. “Ann loved life, she loved this community and we are better because of her love.”

Visitation will be held at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, 416 South 5th Street in Oxford, on Friday, August 2, 2024, at 1:30 pm and a Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 3:00 pm. A private interment will follow.

Waller Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Read Abadie’s full obituary here.