Jo Ann Denley

Jo Ann Denley, longtime managing editor of The Calhoun County Journal, passed away Sunday, March 29 at Baptist Hospital in Oxford.

Visitation is scheduled for Wednesday, April 1 at 1 p.m. with the funeral service to follow at 3 p.m. at Parker Memorial Funeral Home in Bruce. Burial will take place in Bruce Cemetery with Don Ball, Mac Burnett, Scott Dunn, Dr. Bruce Longest, Robert Edward Oakley, and Phillip Talford serving as pallbearers. Members of the Bruce Rotary Club will be serving as honorary pallbearers.

Denley was born Aug. 29, 1935 in Louisville, Ms., the daughter of Milton Irvin Scott and Myrtle Higgason Scott. She was raised in Macon, Ms. She graduated from Macon High School, Wood College and the University of Mississippi with a BAE.

She was married for 53 years to the late S. Gale Denley, Associate Professor of Journalism and Director of the Student Media Center at the University of Mississippi. They were the parents of three daughters - Celia, Lisa and Deanna. She worked for decades as a reporter, news editor, and photographer for The Calhoun County Journal - a family-owned newspaper.

She was a member of the Bruce Rotary Club for more than 30 years during which time she earned numerous Paul Harris Fellow honors. She was the first woman admitted in the Rotary District 6800 consisting of more than 42 clubs spanning North Mississippi and the Memphis area. She served as district governor for two years.

Jo Ann served on the board of directors for Sanctuary Hospice House in Tupelo, and was a longtime officer with the Friends of the Library at Jesse Yancy Memorial Library in Bruce. She also served as building committee chairperson for the library in 1970.

She was a past member of the New Century Club of Bruce where she was named Club Member of the Year among three MFWC clubs, and also served a term as state MFWC secretary.

She received numerous community service awards from Daughters of the American Revolution, the Bruce Chamber of Commerce and was named Bruce Citizen of the Year in 2016, and was grand marshal of the Bruce Christmas Parade in 2017.

She was a former judge and speaker at the University of Mississippi High School Press Institute, and served on the board of directors with M&F Bank in Bruce. She was a past president of Wood College Alumni Association and was honored as Wood College Alumnus of the Year with her husband.

Jo Ann taught school at Toccopola in Pontotoc County for one year and two years at the Adult Education Center in Bruce. She was a longtime member of Bruce United Methodist Church and Calhoun County Community Choir.

She is survived by daughters Celia Hillhouse (Lanny) of Bruce, and Deanna Clements (Randy) of Tuscaloosa; grandchildren - Colby Hillhouse, Abby Rea (Sam), Marshall Bailey (Whitney), all of Bruce; Jo Ellen Bailey, of Germantown, Tenn.; Zachary Adams (Kaitlin), of St. Louis; Samantha Scott (Parker), of Birmingham; and Eli Adams, of Tuscaloosa, and great grandchildren - Addi Claire Bailey, Ellie Kathryn Bailey, Jack Marshall Bailey, Jackson Hillhouse, Will Hillhouse, and Lainy Rea, all of Bruce. She was preceded in death by her parents, a sister Kathryn (Billie) Baker, her husband Gale Denley, and daughter Lisa McNeece.