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MUSEUMS, continued from p. 1
Pictured at the Neilsen gift announcement are, from left, state senator John Horhn, Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute chair Myrlie Evers, former governor William F. Winter, Neilsen and Company president Ray Neilsen, MDAH board of trustees vice president Jack Garner, MDAH board of trustees president Kane Ditto, and Ambassador John Palmer, Foundation for the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, Inc.
In commemoration of the $2.5 million gift, the 2 Mississippi Museums will feature the Craig H. Neilsen Auditorium and the Ray Neilsen Hall of History.
Trustmark’s gift will sponsor the lobby and Community Room shared by the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Museum of Mississippi History. Butler Snow’s donation will sponsor the opening gallery, “Mississippi’s Freedom Struggle,” in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
“Being engaged in the communities we serve has been a corporate philosophy at Trustmark for 125 years,” said Trustmark CEO Jerry Host. “The 2 Mississippi Museums will be an asset to our state, both culturally and economically, by providing an optimum place for education on our state’s history, diversity, and culture for Mississippi citizens and guests from around the world.” “We’re pleased to be able to make this contribution to honor those who strived for equality in Mississippi and to support the important mission of the museum,” said Don Clark, chairman of Butler Snow. “This will be a significant landmark for our state and will serve as an educational resource for decades to come.”
Former governor Haley Barbour recommended joining the two museums and locating them in downtown Jackson. He then worked with the 2011 Legislature to secure funding for the 2MM project. Barbour joined Butler Snow as an attorney in 2012.
“Mississippians need to know their history—the good parts and the bad parts— because we learn from our history,” said Barbour. “We base our plans for the future on the experiences of the past. These mu-
seums will be places where we can teach about our state’s history, about the things of which we ought to be very proud and the things we need to learn about so we don’t commit those sins again. Mississippi is long past ready for that.”
Since construction began in December 2013, all interior floors have been completed. Work on the limestone fa?ade and the 150-car public garage is underway. The concrete roof of the museums is in place and construction of the oculus, the round opening on the roof of the MCRM, has begun. Phase one of the project is ex-
pected to be completed in summer 2015. Phase two, interior construction, will last eighteen months.
The 2011 legislation authorizing construction of the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum required MDAH match the public money with private dollars for exhibits. The Foundation for Mississippi History and Foundation for the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum are on target to meet the goal of $16 million—$12 million for the exhibits plus a $2 million endowment for each museum.
Mary Helen Schaeffer, Gulf Coast Preservationist, Dies at 73
Mary Helen Schaeffer, a tireless supporter of local historic preservation efforts, died February 27, 2015. She was 73.
Schaeffer was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1942. She graduated from Vanderbilt University and earned a master’s in philosophy at Tulane University. After a career of teaching and public service in New Orleans, she moved with her husband Phil
to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1988, where she served on the board of directors for the Mississippi Heritage Trust and the George Ohr Museum, and was an active member of the Pass Christian Historical Society.
“Mary Helen was the epitome of can-do spirit and
was a great inspiration to everyone after Hurricane Katrina,” said Ken P’Pool, who oversaw the Hurricane Relief Grant Program for MDAH. "Her home in Pass Christian was so badly damaged that it was seemingly beyond repair.
But Mary Helen’s dogged determination and unbounded enthusiasm moved the project forward almost by shear force of her will. She was a tremendous inspiration to MDAH staff and volunteers after the storm, and her tenacity daily gave us energy to press forward. Without her leadership, it is likely that we would have lost many more historic buildings in Pass Christian and on the Coast.”