Alumnae Spotlight on Hazle Howell

By Jimmie Meese Moomaw

Hazle Martin Howell from Hazlehurst graduated from MUW with the class of 1940. In the sixty nine years since then she has been a living example of leadership and service – to the W, to the state, and especially to her local community...Canton.

A strikingly beautiful young woman – a real blonde with sky blue eyes and perfect complexion – she was recognized not only for her beauty, but for her intellect. She was chosen “Most Intellectual” by her classmates. While majoring in Home Economics, she danced and did Zouave for Miss Pohl, wrote and performed in skits, was feature editor of the Spectator and President of Theatre Guild. The summer after leaving the W she worked on a Master’s degree at the University of Tennessee and in the fall accepted a teaching job in Canton.

Today she is the matriarch of a large and loving family. She has retained her intellectual curiosity, an informed perspective on the social and political issues of the day, and her artist’s passion for creativity and beauty. A do-it-yourselfer with an array of talents, she creates objects of beauty from such disparate objects as dog hair, deer antlers, home grown orange cotton and fine silk. She is a skilled basket-maker, spinner, and weaver. She once grew orange cotton in her back yard, picked the bolls and pulled out the seed by hand, spun it into yarn, and weaved it into a lovely table runner that now adorns her table. In recognition of her weaving mastery and service to the Guild, she was awarded Lifetime Membership in Chimneyville Weavers and Spinners Guild.

One of the most interesting aspects of her life, is the connection she had with of not one but two of the “W’s” iconic women: Miss Emma Ody Pohl and Miss Eudora Welty. She recounts an experience she had with Welty. “After serving as Mississippi’s Mother of the Year, I was invited to speak at Belhaven’s “Focus on the Family.” Miss Welty (who was her grand daughter’s Godmother) came up to me and said “Hazle, I want you to do something for me…I want you to write that speech down and put it in an envelope and give it to your children.”’ Hazle said she did as Miss Welty asked and put it away somewhere and forgot about it, until this year. Going through some old things, she found it and remembered Miss Welty’s request. More than fifty years after writing it, she sent it to her children. Asked why she sent it now, she said, “Miss Welty made me promise to do it, so I did.”

Hazle’s interactions with Miss Pohl began when she as a student and was a dancer and a zouave Captain for Miss Pohl but lasted well beyond her years at the W. She developed a very popular program of flower arrangements titled “My Life at the W” which she presented at Homecoming convocation one year. She remembers, “I learned what Dr. Hogarth’s favorite Scotch was and made one of the arrangements in a Scotch bottle to tease him. He was so strait-laced on campus, you know, but the students really laughed and loved it when I needled him.” After the Homecoming presentation Hazle traveled with Miss Pohl to Alumnae Association chapter meetings around the state presenting her slide show. She remembers that once when Miss Pohl was in Canton for a meeting, she had dinner with Hazle and her husband, Dr. John B. Howell, Jr. Hazle said, “when John B. came home for dinner, he brought Miss Pohl a box of candy and a rose. She was a delightful guest. She was clutching her gifts when she left and leaned to me and whispered…”you did all right, Martin’” Hazle joined both Miss Pohl and Dr. Hogarth once again when the they applied to the Mississippi Secretary of State to secure a charter for the Foundation. That document has three signatures: Dr. Charles Hogarth, Miss Emma Ody Pohl and Hazle Martin Howell, Hazle signing in her capacity as President of the Mississippi University Alumnae Association as our association was known for 120 years.

The breadth of her volunteer service commitments is reflected in the numerous awards and honors she has received. The depth of her commitment is like wise reflected in the number of years she spent in each of these pursuits. For example, she spent 50 years teaching swimming for the Girl Scouts in Canton. “When I was seventy, “ she said, “I was teaching the racing back stroke to a student who looked at me an said ‘an old woman like you shouldn’t be swimming like that’”

Likewise, she spent twelve years going twice a week to read and tell stories to a second grade class. In recognition of that service, when the Canton Separate School District built a large annex to one of the elementary schools, they named it the Hazle Howell Annex.

Over the years she has received numerous other honors and awards, including: Canton Mother of the Year (nominated by Canton Boys and Girls clubs); Mississippi Mother of the Year (1974); Canton Woman of the Year (Canton Chamber of Commerce); Lifetime Service Award (Canton Chamber of Commerce); Youth Leader of the Year (VFW); Central Mississippi Golden Rule Award (nominated by Girl Scouts); District Beautiful Activist for work with young people (Garden Clubs of Mississippi); and the highest Girl Scout award for 52 years of service.

Despite all the recognition and awards she has garnered, Hazle Martin Howell remains modest and self-deprecating about her accomplishments. Last year she returned to the W campus to attend the Welty Writer’s Symposium and to be interviewed for the Oral History Project. Don’t you know she had some stories to tell and memories to share?