Oral history with Mr. Jon Levingston

              Oral history with Mr. Jon Levingston
F341.5 . M57 vol. 748, pt. 2
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Biography
Born on January 19, 1958, in Greenwood, Mississippi, to Douglas Levingston and Barbara Topol Levingston, Jon Levingston was one of two sons who grew up in a loving Jewish family, in Cleveland, Mississippi. His memories are of a " quiet, pleasant childhood."
Mr. Levingston attended kindergarten at Delta State University, and spent some of his elementary years at Parks Elementary School, a neighborhood school. When he was fifteen years old, Mr. Levingston began his attendance at Darlington School, a boarding school in Rome, Georgia, from which he was graduated as an Honor Graduate in 1975. From 1989 to 1995 he was a member of their Young Alumni Leadership Board. He attended the University of Georgia and was graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, cum laude in 1978 from the Honors Program. In 1979, Mr. Levingston attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, for postgraduate study. In 1989, he was a member of the Governor's Speaker Bureau on Education; in 1991, he was a delegate to the American / German Young Leaders Conference, the American Council on Germany.
Because of his father's poor health, he returned to Mississippi to manage the family business, and he began working at the family's furniture store in Clarksdale, Mississippi, in July of 1983. Currently he is president of Levingston Furniture Companies of Cleveland and Clarksdale. He is president of Radio Cleveland Corporation. Appointed by Governor Ray Mabus from 1988 to 1992, he was on the Board of Directors of Mississippi Development Bank, and was the chair in 1991. From 1989 to 1999, he was on the Board of Directors of the Coahoma County Chamber of Commerce. From 1990 to 1993, he was on the Board of Directors of the Retail Association of Mississippi.
Mr. Levingston is the cofounder of the Levingston Distinguished Speaker Series at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi; he is a member of the Delta State University Foundation Board, and in 1999 was a recipient of their Gladys Castle Service Award. In 1999, he was chair of the Clarksdale Education Partnership Committee.
Mr. Levingston's civic activities include chairing the Mississippi Democratic Party; membership in the State Personnel Board, appointed by Governor Ray Mabus, 1991 to 1996; Executive Board, Delta Area mus- coh. levingstonj. doc Page 1 of 31