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A
Dream Fulfilled
Because of their love for each other and their love for Ole Miss,
Rose Marie Leonard of Kosciusko, Mississippi, and Henry Paris of
Lexington, Mississippi, chose to be married at the Delta Gamma House
on the Ole Miss campus. Rose Marie's grandfather, Charles Henry
Leonard, met his wife, Mary Comfort (a founder of Delta Gamma in
Oxford) in the 1870s. What better setting could there be for this
marriage between Rose Marie, so richly entwined in the soul of Ole
Miss, and Henry, an Ole Miss cheerleader who was chosen by his peers
as Colonel Rebel and placed in the University Hall of Fame?
As Rose Marie and Henry
were joined in marriage, so too were their faiths joined in a family
that was to see their legacy at the University continue in the lives
of their children: LeRoy Henry Paris II '79 and '82, Irma Leonard
Paris Harlow '81, and Rachel Paris Causey '88, and their children's
spouses: Lisa Redditt Paris '82, A.E. "Rusty" Harlow,
Jr. '86, and Arthur Kendall Causey, Jr. '96.
The passionate commitment
to build a chapel at the University has been a dream of the Paris
family since 1976, when Henry was appointed to the Chapel Committee
by Chancellor Porter Fortune. The lead gift for the chapel is from
the Paris family, and Lee Paris assumed the leadership role in organizing
the effort to attract the additional funding needed to complete
the chapel.
A Star of David together
with a cross serves as a symbol of the union between the faiths
of Judaism and Christianity represented by the union of Mr. and
Mrs. Henry Paris. This symbol is found on the stained glass window
on the front of the Paris-Yates Chapel, which is available to the
Ole Miss family for prayer, meditation, worship, and perhaps another
wedding for one of Henry and Rose's nine grandchildren. If indeed
this destiny is fulfilled, it will continue the family's five generations
of being a part of the Ole Miss family.
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