Augusta Day
Augusta Kincannon Wilson Day of Hazlehurst, died Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, Miss., in the same house in which she was born on May 5, 1936.
“Gusta Baby,” as she was often called by family and friends, was considerably younger than her sister, Ann Fairly Wilson Johnson, and her brother, John Alexander Wilson, Jr. To explain the age difference, her mother, Annie May Kincannon Wilson, and father, John Alexander Wilson, always said: “Oh, we just had this one for fun.”
She had the kind of small-town childhood that allowed freedom about town on foot, skates or horseback and included a pet that started life as a colored Easter chick and grew to be a fine rooster that sat for meals at the dining room table with the family.
She graduated from Hazlehurst High School where she was Miss Hazlehurst High. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Mississippi where she was Pi Kappa Alpha Dream Girl and a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority. She was also a member of the Debutante Club of Mississippi, Inc. and was a Maid of the Cotton Carnival of Memphis, Tennessee.
She cherished her deep family roots in Hazlehurst but also lived in Harlingen, Tx., Baton Rouge, La., Biloxi, Oxford and Jackson, Miss. and even briefly in Keflavik, Iceland.
She was passionate about reading and a lifelong student of news and current events. She served as a trustee for the Copiah-Jefferson Regional Library Board and was a member of the Cherokee Rose Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She had a true artistic talent for vocal music and painting and a great love for hearing and telling stories.
She had four children, Randall Elliott Day III (Alexis Allen), Ann Wilson Day Becker, Andrew Oliver Day, and Clayton Edward Day; and eight grandchildren, Zachary, Connor, Eli, Adam and Lee Day of Hazlehurst; Duncan Becker of New Orleans, La., and Olivia and Anna Kathryn Becker of Jackson.
The benefits to her family and friends of her experience, guidance, advice, generosity, inspiration and imagination are beyond measure. All will be celebrated in a memorial service at 2 p.m. Wed., March 2, at the Hazlehurst United Methodist Church. Visitation at the church begins at 1 p.m. Burial at the Hazlehurst City Cemetery will follow the service. Afterwards, guests are invited to gather at her home on Extension Street to enjoy the hospitality for which it is widely known.
Memorial gifts can be made to the Copiah-Jefferson Regional Library, 223 S. Extension St. Hazlehurst, MS 39083 or to the Copiah Endowment Corporation and designated to the Clayton Day Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 125, Gallman, MS 39077.
