Janice Wyatt, former Delta State first lady, dies at 91

Janice Wyatt, the former Delta State first lady, died at 91, leaving behind a record at Delta State University that reaches well past a single campus title. Her name sits in the university library’s Mississippi Oral History Project, and Delta State later attached it to an arts program that became part of the institution’s public face in Cleveland.

The Delta State University Library holds a Janice Wyatt Oral History recorded June 15, 2000, with interviewer Brenda Outlaw. That interview placed Wyatt among the people the university considered important enough to preserve in its own historical record, a sign that her role at Delta State was remembered not just socially but institutionally.

Her connection to campus life also appears in the Janice Wyatt Mississippi Summer Arts Institute. Delta State magazine materials note that the institute was established in 1998, linking her name to one of the university’s arts offerings. For a school that has long served as one of Cleveland’s defining institutions, that kind of naming keeps a person visible in student life long after a title has faded.

Delta State’s own foundation marked her death with condolences to her family and loved ones, adding that her life reflected a steadfast commitment to the university community. The response shows how Wyatt remained part of Delta State’s memory network, the web of alumni, faculty, staff and supporters who keep campus history alive in the Mississippi Delta.

Her place in that history is underscored by a Delta State oral history from Dr. Kent Wyatt, later identified by the university as president emeritus, who said, “My class was the first class to graduate from Delta State College. Janice was the first Miss Delta State.” The line ties Janice Wyatt to the earliest layers of the school’s modern identity and explains why her name has stayed in circulation among people who know the university’s story.

Dr. Kent Wyatt’s own recognition continued when Delta State athletics announced in 2020 that he was named to the Gulf South Conference Hall of Fame Class, keeping the Wyatt name prominent in university memory. Together, the oral history, the arts institute and the foundation’s condolences show that Janice Wyatt was remembered at Delta State as more than a first lady. She was part of the campus history Cleveland still carries.