Mildred South, nee Nash, wife of WVON radio station co-owner, Wesley South; mother of Illinois Appellate Court Justice, Leslie Elaine South-Jackson. She died on May 25, 2002. Mrs. South and her husband celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary a week earlier. She was 87. She was born in Canton, MS, March 31, 1915, attended Tougaloo College, Jackson, MS, receiving a BA in Education. She taught in Sikeston, MO. She later moved to St. Louis, MO, where she was hired as a secretary of Lincoln University and became instrumental in aiding many African Americans who had otherwise been denied entry into Law, Medicine, Dentistry and graduate schools. She worked for a U.S. Land Lease Agency and Illinois Department of Employment Compensation. Nine days after meeting Wesley South, they were married and remained until her death, 56 years later. Mildred became employed by Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers Union, University of Chicago Law School and became the loving caretaker for two grandsons, Wesley and Christopher, for 17 years, until 1999. To her credit, she created, between 1973 to 1991, an annual memorial fund for her deceased brother, Emil Nash, Ph.D., involving three universities where he had taught, Meharry Medical School, University of Pennsylvania and Howard University. Services were held May 30, 2002 at The Church of the Good Shepherd Congregational. She will be very sorely and profoundly missed.
