Z 2137.000 S
MELTON (ANNE JANE WILLIAMS) PAPERS


Biography/History:

Anne Jane Williams was born in Hazlehurst, Copiah County, Mississippi, on November 15, 1899. She was the daughter of William and Mary Magdalene Gaston Williams. After graduating from Central High School in Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, in 1917, Williams entered the Industrial Institute and College (later Mississippi University for Women) in Columbus, Lowndes County, Mississippi. Upon graduating from college in 1921, Williams returned to Jackson where she worked as private secretary to Governor Henry Lewis Whitfield. Williams subsequently married Julius Wemyss Melton of Jackson. The couple had three children, Julius Wemyss, Jr., Mary Gaston, and William E. Melton. After training as a Gray Lady, Melton worked for the American Red Cross in Jackson during World War II. Melton began working for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History as a research librarian in 1954, and she retired from that position in 1968. She was active in the Chaminade, Pioneer, and Research clubs, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and she was a founding member of the Mississippi Genealogical Society. Melton died at the age of eighty-eight on August 16, 1988.

Scope and Content:

This collection consists of academic- and career-related papers of Anne Jane Williams Melton. The academic papers consist of handwritten notes, papers, and tests accumulated by Melton during her senior year at Central High School in Jackson and as an English major at the Industrial Institute and College in Columbus. The career papers reflect Meltons training and work as a Gray Lady in the American Red Cross during World War II. Included are handwritten notes; a lecture outline describing various aspects of the training course; a chart outlining the services of the American Red Cross in individual chapters, hospitals, and camps; and an organizational chart of the American Red Cross in Jackson. Also included are a typewritten copy of a speech that Melton delivered at the 1958 Louisiana Genealogical Society annual meeting regarding research materials available at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and an attendance list from that meeting.

Series Identification:

  1. Academic Papers. 1915-1921; n.d.

    Box 1, folders 1-9

  2. Career Papers. ca. 1940-1958.

    Box 1, folders 10 and 11