Oral history with Dr. W.J. Cunningham

              Oral history with Dr. W. J. Cunningham
This oral history is provided through a cooperative project of University of Southern Mississippi Libraries and USM's Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage.
Funding provided by a National Leadership Grant for Libraries from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
The transcript is presented here for reference purposes only. Interviews in this collection are protected by copyright. PERMISSION TO PUBLISH MUST BE REQUESTED from the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage. Please call ( 601) 266- 4574 for more information.
Biography
Dr. William Jefferson Cunningham was born on December 23, 1905, in Iuka, Mississippi. His father was the Reverend E. H. Cunningham, for many years a minister in the North Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church. His mother was Jeffie Eugene Akers, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Akers of Iuka.
The Cunninghams came from South Carolina and settled in Prentiss County. The Akerses came from North Alabama at the turn of the century with twelve children in the family to attend school in Iuka. Their home in Iuka was lightly called " the house that covers fourteen ‘ acres’." Dr. Cunningham's parents first met when both were attending the famous Dean Normal Institute there.
He married Miss Lorinne Mitchell, daughter of the Honorable and Mrs. Guy W. Mitchell, in Tupelo on November 16, 1932. They have three daughters: Mrs. O. Gerald Trigg, of Colorado Springs, Colorado; Mrs. E. L. Redding, Jr., of Jackson, Mississippi; and Mrs. Robert L. Gay, of Portland, Oregon.
Dr. Cunningham finished high school at the Mississippi Heights Academy, then a boys' preparatory school, in Blue Mountain, Mississippi, in 1925.
When he entered Millsaps College in September of that year, he was in painful indecision about the choice of a career; before the year was over he chose the ministry. In Jackson he attended the Galloway Memorial Methodist Church, sang in its choir, and was President of its youth organization.
At Millsaps he was a member of the Glee Club, the debating team, and the staff of the college paper. He was secretary of his social fraternity, the Pi Kappa Alpha.
Invited to become student assistant at the Methodist Church in Oxford, he enrolled in the University of Mississippi at the beginning of his junior year. He continued extra- curricula activities as a member of the Glee Club and the debating team. He finished with the liberal arts degree in 1929.
Among students he knew at Ole Miss who attained prominent careers were: John C. Satterfield, Jamie Whitten, Hugh N. Clayton, Claude F. Clayton, McDonald K. Horne, and T. D. Clark. mus- coh. cunninghamw. doc Page 1 of 73