Jan. 17, 2004

Louis Dollarhide

OXFORD, Miss. — University of Mississippi Professor Emeritus of English Louis Edgar Dollarhide died Friday in Oxford after several months of declining health. He was 85.

A Shakespearean scholar, Dollarhide earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Mississippi College in 1942, a master’s degree from Harvard University in 1947 and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina in 1954. He taught English at Mississippi College for 20 years before joining the Ole Miss faculty in 1967. He retired from the university in December 1987.

“He was a wonderful person, very kind and generous,” said his daughter Martha Carolyn Thomason of Oxford. “His students loved him. He just left a wonderful impression on all his students.”

From courses on John Milton to seminars on Eudora Welty and Tennessee Williams, Dollarhide lectured to thousands of students during his 40 years of teaching.

Born in America, Kan., Dollarhide grew up in Kosciusko. His scholarly works and writings of fiction and non-fiction appeared in numerous publications throughout his career. Of Art and Artists: Selected Reviews of the Arts in Mississippi, a collection of some 250 of his newspaper columns compiled in 1981, is among the many books, short stories, articles and poems he authored. He also co-edited a book of essays titled Eudora Welty: A Form of Thanks.

Dollarhide served as editor for the Mississippi Arts Commission and as president of the Mississippi Poetry Society. For many years, he chaired the UM Artist Series, and from 1955 to 1976 he wrote a weekly column and more than 1,000 book reviews and articles for The Jackson Daily News-Clarion Ledger.

In 1942 Dollarhide served a short stint in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

He is survived by his five children, Jane Elizabeth Dollarhide, John Zachary Dollarhide and Martha Carolyn Thomason, all of Oxford, Louis E. Dollarhide III of Columbus, and David King Dollarhide of Navarre, Fla., as well as twelve grandchildren and step-grandchildren and one sister, Carolyn Allen of Martinez, Ga.

A memorial service is scheduled for 3 p.m. Jan. 30 in Paris-Yates Chapel on the UM-Oxford campus. A reception follows at the Oxford home of John and Barbara Dollarhide.

The family requests that memorials be made to the Louis Dollarhide Liberal Arts Scholarship Fund through the UM Foundation.

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