Ole Miss Alumni Hall-of-Famer Continues to Better Alma Mater

By Kirby Wheat
Hottytoddy.com intern

Not many people can say they have spent more than half of their lives working toward the betterment and preservation of their alma mater. This, however, is the case for alumna Carole Lynn Meadows. She has worked tirelessly since graduation in 1960 to ensure the university continues to be the nurturing and safe space she knew as a student.

Meadows (second from left) alongside other Alumni Hall of Famers in 1994. Photo courtesy of Carole Lynn Meadows.

Originally from Lucedale, Mississippi, Meadows was all set to attend Millsaps College in Jackson, but off a whim she and her roommate decided last minute to attend Ole Miss instead. In fact, her first time on the campus was her first day of freshman year. Since then she hasn’t looked back on her decision.

“Everything about the university and about Oxford calls to you. It gets in your system,” she said.

Meadows with her Alumni Hall of Fame Service Award. Photo courtesy of Carole Lynn Meadows.

Meadows studied secretarial science in the business school, which was housed in the Lyceum at the time. She and her husband Joe were married after they finished their undergraduate degrees, but it wasn’t long before they both went back to Oxford to continue their education. Joe enrolled in the UM Law School and Carole Lynn began her first teaching job in Thaxton, Mississippi. It was then she realized she could make better use of her skills by obtaining a master’s degree in business education.

After they both finished their graduate degrees, the couple moved to Shreveport, Louisiana so Joe could begin his law career. It wasn’t long before they started to miss the magnolias, tamales, and jazz music that Mississippi is so well known for, and after a year away they relocated again to Gulfport, Mississippi. It was in Gulfport they found comfort in an Ole Miss Alumni Club where Meadows put her schooling into practice by taking a secretarial position for the club.

It was here that her rise to Ole Miss stardom began. Becoming anything more than a helpful hand of her local chapter was never part of her plan, but as time passed she was chosen as vice president and then later, president.

Each president from the local clubs around the nation were also asked to join the board of the Alumni Club at the national level, meaning that Meadows once again found herself in Oxford for meetings and fundraisers. It was around this time that she met Linda Spargo, who now serves as special events coordinator for the chancellor.

At the time, Spargo was a member of a women’s only investment group in Oxford. Carole Lynn had worked as an investor for a few years and enjoyed it, but being in control of other people’s’ money “made [her] nervous”, she said, so she went back to teaching. Her expertise in the investment world made her the perfect person to teach women its ins-and-outs, so she added one more responsibility to her plate and traveled to Oxford once a month to help with the investment club.

Spargo said that Meadows is a “dynamo woman” and someone she has always admired for her faith, her patience, her love of people, and her professionalism.

The women continued to grow their friendship and later worked under Chancellor Robert Kayat during what they called a “Renaissance period” for the university for close to 15 years. During this time the university saw a 43 percent rise in enrollment, raised over $100 million in grants to aid in research and development for the university, and brought the Phi Beta Kappa honors society to Ole Miss. It was also during this time that Meadows was elected as the first female president of the National Alumni Association.

“We all want to know that we have meaning in our life…that we’re somehow helping some other cause rather than for your personal gain or just for your family,” she said.

Based on her steadfast devotion to bettering the university and its students, she was inducted into the Ole Miss Hall of Fame in 1994. Though she did not speak much to the accolades, her professionalism shined through after saying she gains more happiness from seeing others succeed than from her own achievements.

“We all need women in our life who are like that—professional women who like what they do, who make money at what they do, who have a financial stake in that, and who also have a family,” Spargo said. “It just helps all of us.”