FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 1, 2007
Contact: Anika Mitchell Perkins
(662) 329-7124

MUW creative writing majors to benefit from scholarship

COLUMBUS, Miss. - As a journalist and world traveler, Neill James was
able to touch the lives of those she meet. Her legacy will continue
through a scholarship established for creative writing majors at
Mississippi University for Women.

The Neill James Memorial Scholarship Fund was funded with proceeds from a charitable remainder trust, which was established by James’ younger sister Jane Loomis.

Loomis never attended MUW, but James graduated from the Industrial
Institute & College in 1918. Both were born in Grenada.

June Snowden, executor of the trust and niece of the two sisters,
attended a luncheon with other family members on campus celebrating the
occasion. Snowden and her husband, Thomas, currently live in Meridian.

“You all know what Aunt Jane meant to me,” she said. “When she
began to make arrangements for her estate, she wanted to do for students
as well as animals.”

Snowden said James and Loomis were independent and philanthropists.

“They were honest and hard working, and what they accumulated, they
shared with others.”

In reading through James’ papers, it was evident that travel was in
her blood.

She met many celebrities of the day including Amelia Earhart, which
sparked an interest in flying. Her travels around the world ended with
retirement in Mexico after she was injured for a second time in a
volcano accident.

James fell in love with Mexico and its people and began compiling her
notes and journals into the popular “Petticoat Vagabond” series,
introducing and inviting writers to share her wealth of information. She
hosted Ernest Hemingway, D.H. Lawrence, George Bernard Shaw, plus the
editor of LIFE magazine.

She was responsible for turning the small fishing village of Ajijic on
the shores of Lake Chappala into an art center of international focus.
Her homes and gardens were left to The Lake Chapala Society, which today
is an information center for travelers, residents and Mexican people.

Loomis and her two-star Marine general husband lived the last 45 years
of their life in California. They were generous supporters of the Boys &
Girls Club, Humane Society and the American Cancer Society. The Snowdens took care of Loomis in California until her death.

MUW President Claudia A. Limbert, who earned a master’s degree in
fiction writing from Boston University, expressed her bias toward the
creative writing scholarship.

"Having such a scholarship made a difference in my life,” she said.
“This scholarship will certainly enhance the great opportunities
MUW has to offer.”