Ted J. Smith has been named executive director of the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Foundation operates the five-building Southern Cultural Heritage Complex, located at the historic St. Francis Xavier Convent and School, home of the Sisters of Mercy from 1860 to 1991.

The Center for the Study of Southern Culture has assisted with the development of the Complex since the City of Vicksburg purchased the property in June 1994. “The Center played a pivotal role in the creation of our organization and continues to provide us with invaluable support,” said Smith. “I thoroughly enjoy working with the Center’s faculty and staff. Their support continues to make a great difference as our organization strives to become an outstanding cultural activities center that preserves and interprets the diverse cultural heritage of Vicksburg, the Mississippi Delta, and the American South.”

Smith’s duties include working on the restoration and development of the Complex while running its day-to-day operations. For these tasks he is well qualified. Smith earned a bachelor’s degree in administrative management and a master’s in history from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He worked for the Arkansas Territorial Restoration in Little Rock and the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale, Arkansas, before entering the doctoral program in history at the University of Mississippi. He is writing his dissertation on Southern migration during the 19th century.

Since moving to Vicksburg last April, Smith has reinstated the humanities lecture series and other projects that lapsed during the absence of a director. He has also inaugurated new initiatives, among them an oral history program. The first topic is “St. Francis Memories,” with interviews of former students, teachers, and administrators from the school that was operated in the buildings for 130 years. Smith has also been busy with many other events at the Complex. In July, it was used for filming of scenes for O, Brother, Where Art Thou?, produced and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen of Raising Arizona and Fargo fame. The fourth annual Historic Vicksburg Landscape Symposium was held in October, and the second Red Tops Revisited Reception and Dance took place on November 7. Information about these and other activities is available on the Complex’s new web site (www.southernculture.org).

For additional information or to make a tax-deductible contribution to help restore the buildings or assist with programs, contact Ted J. Smith, Executive Director, Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation, 1302 Adams Street, Vicksburg, MS 39183; e mail tjs@southernculture.org; telephone 601-631-2997; fax 601-631-3734.

Photograph by M. K. Smith