Dates:  1961 - 1962; 1969; n.d.
 

Biography:

Mildred Spurrier Topp

Mildred Spurrier Topp was born on January 5, 1897, at Forrest City, Illinois, and moved to Greenwood, Mississippi, in 1904 when her mother established a photography studio in that town. Her childhood in Greenwood was chronicled in her autobiographical writings Smile Please (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1948) and In the Pink (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950). Mildred Spurrier Topp was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, 1932-1935, representing Leflore County. She worked as a newspaper journalist and taught creative writing at the University of Mississippi several years before her death in 1963.

 

Scope and Content Note:

This collection consists of eight letters written by Mildred Spurrier Topp to her fellow faculty members and friends at the University of Mississippi, Dr. and Mrs. John Hebron Moore. In these letters she describes the trial of riot inciters after the Meredith Incident at the University of Mississippi. There is one letter written by her son, Bob, from Vietnam to the Moores, commenting on the character of his mother.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Correspondence, 1961–1962; 1969; n.d. 9 items.