JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) - Fannie Lee Chaney, the mother of one of the three civil-rights workers killed in the "Mississippi Burning" case in 1964, has died, her son said Wednesday. She had lived to see a reputed leader of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan leader convicted two years ago in the young men's deaths.
Ben Chaney said Wednesday from his mother's home in Willingboro, New Jersey, that funeral arrangements were pending and information would be released later.
His older brother James Chaney was killed on June 21, 1964, in central Mississippi's Neshoba County, along with fellow civil rights workers Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman.
The case was the basis of the 1988 movie "Mississippi Burning."
Mississippi prosecutors revived their investigation of the slayings a few years ago, and Fannie Lee Chaney testified in June 2005 at the Philadelphia, Mississippi, trial of reputed Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen.
Killen was convicted on three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005 - exactly 41 years after the deaths. Now 82, Killen is serving a 60-year prison sentence.
Fannie Lee Chaney, then 82, testified that her son James had gone to join the other two in delivering books.
"He never come back," she said.
She said she moved from Mississippi in 1965 after receiving threats that including one by a man who said he would dynamite her house. She said another caller told her "I wasn't going to be there long before I be put in a hole like James was."
Chaney, a black man from Mississippi, and Schwerner and Goodman, white men from New York, were looking into the torching of a black church and helping register black voters during what was called Freedom Summer. They had been stopped for speeding, jailed briefly and then released, after which they were ambushed by a gang of Klansmen.
Their bodies were found weeks later buried in an earthen dam. They had been beaten and shot.
Killen was tried along with several others in 1967 on federal charges of violating the victims' civil rights. The all-white jury deadlocked in Killen's case, but seven others were convicted. None served more than six years. Killen was the only person ever indicted on state murder charges in the case.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press
A woman of COURAGE and much STRENGTH, folks will never know what FANNIE went through with the murder of her son, only others that experience the same circumstance can fathom. She did see JUSTICE b4 leaving this place we call earth, THANK GOD.......MANY MANY BLESSINGS
Valenda Newell
July 15, 2016 | Indianapolis, IN
God Bless
Cynthia Cameron
August 05, 2014 | Wilmar, AR
Ms.Chaney was a good friend of my mothers and I have a pic of her, Nellie Clark, and Albertha White. They all worked together as Towers Nursing Home in New York.
January 21, 2013
Maggie and All,
Sorry about your relative dying.
BMC William H. Cain, USN, Ret
NJROTC
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH HIGH SCHOOL
LITTLE RIVER, SC, 29566
June 19, 2012
Aunt Fannie not a day go by that I don't think about all the go times. I really miss all the telephone calls, and all the advice. I love you so much and I know God has another angel. All My Love!
MaryAnn Ross
February 07, 2012 | Columbus, MS
May the God of comfort and tender mercies continue to comfort you and your family.
Know that very shortly death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things will have passed away.
Please accept my sincere condolences.
D. Clark
September 30, 2011
Miss Fanny Lee Chaney,
I cannot imagine the depth of your dispair all these years.Your son's story never left my thoughts.and his bravery and the bravery of those he was with that day, will remain,always an inspiration to me. As will you.
Sarah Leeder
May 06, 2011 | Edmonton, AB
My English classes are studying Mildred D Taylor's novel, The Road to Memphis. Sharing the legacy of James Chaney during the Mississippi Burning and Freedom Summer eras was an excellent way to teach the historical context and times in which this novel was written. I served as musician and choir director for Mrs. Chaney's Homegoing Services in Meridian. I was blessed to be midst of civil rights leaders and AG Jim Hood as they spoke of a a mother's fight to see the men responsible for her...
Shelia Yvette Walker
October 13, 2009 | Meridian, MS
To the Family of Fannie Chaney,
I recently learned from Ben about the passing of his mother, Mrs. Chaney. My relationship with Mrs. Chaney is one that I will always cherish. I remember meeting her in Fort Lauderdale. Her visit with my aunt and me in the early 70's went from a few days to months. Our friendship continued through the years. She will be remembered as a person who continued to pursue the civil rights of persons long after the murder of her son James.
May God...
Rhoda Glasco-Foderingham
September 03, 2007 | Coral Springs, FL