By the Honorable William Winter,  
former Governor of Mississippi 

  The dedication of the Lynn and Stewart Gammill Gallery today marks more than the addition of a meaningful new feature to this increasingly important Center for the Study of Southern Culture.

   It is also the occasion for the recognition of two people and their families who have contributed so much to the enrichment of the lives of all of us Southerners. Lynn and Stewart have demonstrated through all of the years that I have known them an unquenchable commitment and passion to identify and preserve the best and noblest elements of our culture.

   As lifelong Mississippians, they have recognized and appreciated our historic heritage and the natural wealth and beauty of our state, and they have worked in countless ways to protect that inherited bounty from abuse and neglect. Provided by earlier generations of their respective families with a clear vision of the unlimited potential that Mississippi has, they have spent their lives seeking to fulfill that vision.

   The impact of their untiring and unselfish efforts on behalf of education in all of its aspects, of enlightened economic development, and of historic preservation is found wherever one turns. Without calling attention to themselves, they have done as much as anybody I know to move this whole region in the way it should go.

   Back some 30 years ago when we were seeking to define the South in a more favorable and constructive way, Stewart, as one of the organizers of the L. Q. C. Lamar Society, contributed a challenging segment to the book You Can’t Eat Magnolias, published by the Society.

   In that provocative volume, after decrying our preoccupation for so long with the maintenance of racial segregation, he wrote these words: “Unless responsible Southerners step forward with constructive, honest efforts in the many areas which need attention, we will surely see the destiny of the South continue to a large extent to be determined by others.”

   Those were prophetic words then just as they still are. Stewart and Lynn Gammill have done more than their part to help us better understand how we can fashion that destiny in the best possible way.

   It has been my good fortune to have known them both for a long time. I have had the special privilege of serving with Lynn on the Crosby Arboretum Board and on the Board of Trustees of the Department of Archives and History. I have been amazed at her capacity to give of herself in so many ways to serve her fellow citizens–as president of the L. O. Crosby Jr. Memorial Foundation, as vice regent of the Board of Mount Vernon, as chair of the Advisory Committee for the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, as leader along with Stewart in other vital activities and causes too numerous for me to mention here.

   Let me say then on the occasions of the dedication of this lovely gallery what I believe all of us truly feel–that in Stewart and Lynn Gammill we see personified what meaningful, selfless, visionary service to others is all about; of what is represented in the preserving and sharing of our priceless cultural bounty; of what is in the highest and noblest tradition of our free society.

   To them I say on behalf of all of us who love our state and country, “You have given us high standards to live by and t5he inspiration to try to meet these standards.”