Five-time Olympian Willye B. White was given fond tributes Thursday in a simple ceremony celebrating the former Greenwood resident’s accomplishments both on and off the track.
A marker naming the 10-mile stretch of U.S. 49 South running from Sidon to Greenwood “Willye B. White Memorial Highway” was unveiled. On hand were a number of White’s contemporaries from Broad Street High School, who are here for the annual class reunion.
White “came from the Money Plantation and went on to finish high school here and then went on to Tennessee State and then went worldwide,” said state Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, also a product of Broad Street High, who sponsored the bill naming that portion of the road.
White, who died of pancreatic cancer in February 2007 at the age of 68, participated in her first Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, at the age of 16. She brought home a silver medal in the long jump—the first time an American woman had won a medal in that event.
She won her second silver medal in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo as a member of a 400-meter relay team. She also participated in the 1960, 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics.
Earlier this year, White was inducted into the Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce’s Leflore County Hall of Fame.
Michael Joe Cannon, past president of the chamber, greeted the crowd of about 50 people at the marker’s unveiling.
“Miss Willye B. White was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame back in 1981. Unfortunately, it took us 30 years here to finally wake up and realize what an accomplishment she had here in this area, in representing Greenwood and the Greenwood city schools and Leflore County,” Cannon said. “Hallelujah to that. It shows you how far we’ve come as a chamber.”
Suresh Chawla, the chamber’s current president, said White was the product of an excellent school, and he has met some very accomplished people from there.
“I’m not just talking about state senators. I’m talking about doctors, lawyers, engineers — successful entrepreneurs,” he said. “I wish that we could find out more about Broad Street High School. I just wish we could see how successful it was.
“There had to be a secret formula over there because what they produced, despite the fact they were underfunded and the era of segregation going on,” he said. “What a wonderful, wonderful group of students they produced. Whether it was Academy Award-winning actors, doctors, lawyers, you name it, Broad Street High School was a fantastic school.”
Chawla told the crowd that it is important to not let future treasures such as White leave the Delta.
“Let’s make sure that the people that are growing up here have the opportunities so they don’t have to go to Chicago, St. Louis or Detroit,” he said.
State Rep. Willie Perkins, D-Greenwood, said White came from humble beginnings — daughter of sharecroppers and raised by her grandparents in Money.
Despite segregation and poverty, “she did not let her current circumstance dictate her role, her future, in life,” Perkins said. “She ran out of here, that’s what happened. She literally ran and jumped out of her position,” Perkins said.
White’s former classmate and teammate, Ruben Hughes, told the crowd that rising above poverty and racism wasn’t easy.
“It wasn’t good times. It was hard times. We made it, and we became good friends,” he said.
Paige Hunt, executive director of the Greenwood Convention and Visitors Bureau, said she was surprised to learn when arriving in Greenwood in 2007 that it was the home of such an accomplished athlete. The honor of recognizing White, she said, “was a little bit overdue. I’m glad we’re honoring a famous Greenwoodian.”
White’s can-do spirit marked her life, said Cheryl Taylor, executive director of Cottonlandia Museum.
“She was a woman who never gave up. She was driven to be successful,” Taylor said.
Even after White retired from sports, she set up the Willye B. White Foundation to help deserving low-income girls participate in sports.
“She was the kind of person with the heart and soul that would help other people,” Taylor said.
Ronnie Stevenson, president of the Greenwood City Council, said he remembered watching White’s accomplishments on television.
“Seeing somebody, not just on TV black, but on TV black from Greenwood, Mississippi — that was amazing,” he said.
Anthony Phillips, a classmate of White’s who now lives in San Ramon, Calif., said White was an athlete for the ages.
“They used to call her ‘Barefoot Red.’ She ran barefoot,” he said.
Phillips, a retired systems engineering manager with Hewlett-Packard who got to Silicon Valley via Tougaloo College, said the markers are a fitting tribute.
Viola White, a cousin of White’s, who lives in Greenwood, said her cousin had dreamed of running track and being an athlete. Although it was Viola White who got interested in track first, she said, Willye B. carried the baton on.
• Contact Bob Darden at bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
