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Ellen Douglas Obituary

JACKSON, Miss. Ellen Douglas, a Mississippi native whose novel "Apostles of Light" was a 1973 National Book Award nominee, died Wednesday in Jackson. She was 91.

Ms. Douglas, who cited fellow Mississippi native William Faulkner as a literary influence, was the pen name of Josephine Ayres Haxton. She said she took a pseudonym to guard the privacy of her family. Ms. Douglas' Mississippi-set work dealt candidly with race relations, families and the role of women.

Ms. Douglas grew up in Hope, Ark., and Alexandria, La., and spent summers with her grandparents in Natchez, Miss., where the family's roots reached back generations. She graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1942. She wrote 11 books, including six novels and several collections of short stories and essays.

"Apostles of Light" is a complex novel about the mistreatment of residents at a home for the elderly in fictional Homochitto, Miss., the town in many of her works.

"If you don't have conflict, you don't have fiction," Ms. Douglas told The Associated Press in a 2005 interview about race relations and other forces that helped shape literature.

State Rep. Steve Holland, a funeral director handling arrangements, said Ms. Douglas died after an extended illness. He said she would be buried in her native Natchez.

Ms. Douglas raised her family in Greenville, Miss., and had lived in Jackson for three decades.

In a 1980 oral history with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Ms. Douglas said she was influenced by the "overwhelming hypnotic style" of Faulkner, who was living and writing in Oxford when she was a student there at the University of Mississippi. She said she met him once when she was a student and a couple of times years later, but didn't know him well.

Her 1979 novel, "The Rock Cried Out," is about a Mississippi man whose cousin was killed during the Freedom Summer of 1964. , a pivotal time for the civil rights movement in the Deep South state. Some of her other works were "A Family's Affairs" and "Can't Quit You, Baby."

Ms. Douglas won a lifetime achievement award in 2008 from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.

She is survived by three sons: Richard Haxton, Brooks Haxton and Ayres Haxton.

Cynthia Shearer, a novelist who is a writing consultant at Texas Christian University, said when she did her first public reading of her own writing in the 1980s, Ms. Douglas was in the audience in Oxford, Miss.

"She didn't know me from Adam, but she beamed at me the whole time, telegraphing bravery to me," Shearer recalled.

Shearer, author of the novels "The Wonder Book of the Air" and "The Celestial Jukebox," said Douglas was quiet and unassuming.

"I saw her sitting by herself at a writer's conference one time after I'd published my first novel, and I took my little glass of white wine over to sit with her," Shearer told AP. "She held up her glass of bourbon instructionally, and then eyed my white wine sardonically, and said, 'You got to do better than that."'

Ms. Douglas was writer-in-residence at the University of Mississippi from 1979 to 1983. One of her creative-writing students was Larry Brown, an Oxford firefighter who later wrote "Big Bad Love" and other gritty novels set in the South. Brown died in 2004.

Published by The Record/Herald News on Nov. 9, 2012.

Memories and Condolences
for Ellen Douglas

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18 Entries

Valenda Newell

September 21, 2016

I have wonderful memories of Josephine There had been a storm that knocked out the electricity so we entertained ourselves with ghost stories. Later Josephine scared the bejesus out of me when she came walking through the dark in a long white nightgown carrying a candle and her hair so long it almost reached the floor. Fond memories of Kenneth, Josephine, Wetherbee, Little Theater, Greenville

Mary Helen LOOPER

September 1, 2013

Geez Louise, I am seardching just now to write my mother's obituary in our home town newspaper and some force of the universe made me happen here. Thank you, it gave me strength and I wish that I had known you.

November 22, 2012

may the blessing of GOD be with the Douglas family.Please accept my sincere sympathy......gd.

November 16, 2012

Condolences to family and friends during this difficult time.
Psalm 9:9

D E

November 14, 2012

We are sorry for you loss.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for according to his great mercy he gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Peter 1:3

pc rodriguez

November 11, 2012

May the God of comfort give you the strength needed to endure during this difficult time.

Marie M

November 11, 2012

Our Deepest Condolences to the Family and Friends. May God be with YOU to bring YOU Comfort and Peace through this Difficult Time.

The Brunson Family

November 10, 2012

My sympathies to the Douglas family and friends. I am very sorry for your loss. God will provide with comfort during your time of sorrow for he gives hope with all joy and peace that you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13

Ashley

November 10, 2012

You have my deepest sympathy, may you draw close to God as he draws close to you at this difficult time.

November 10, 2012

sorry for the lost, but here in gods word the bible at 2tim 3:16,17 that the answer to our our problems is god word the bible, what a true source of comfort...

sterling w

November 10, 2012

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and gave everlasting comfort and good hope by means of undeserved kindness comfort your hearts and make you firm in every good deed and word.

November 10, 2012

Condolences to the friends and family of Mrs. Ellen Douglas, may you all throw your burden on our Heavenly Father and He will sustain you all at this difficult time.

Margaret

November 9, 2012

Praying for you and your family. I was really inspired by your novels and poetry.

Lora Givens

November 8, 2012

As the days and weeks pass, and as you return to life's routine, may you continue to feel comforted by the love and support of family and friends.

JHJ

November 8, 2012

Peace Be With You, Sweet Soul.

Ivy

November 8, 2012

Sorry for your loss. May you find comfort in the Hearer of prayer at this time. Psalm 65:2

November 8, 2012

May the family members of Ellen Douglas be comforted by our Heavenly Father's promise at Isaiah 65:17, 22-24.

November 8, 2012

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