Florence Mars

Miss Florence Mars was born New Year's Day, 1923, in the small Mississippi city of Philadelphia, Neshoba County. Her education through high school was taken in Philadelphia. For her higher education, she studied both at Millsaps College, in Jackson, and subsequently at the University of Mississippi, where she graduated in 1944. Although her life has been tied closely to her native Philadelphia, Miss Mars has spent extended periods elsewhere, including an eighteen months in Atlanta working for an airline, and two years in New Orleans as a photographer. Business interests caused her to spend parts of her time in her native home while working in New Orleans. As she summarizes it, "I had a cattle farm. . .that I operated and had someone else to manage. In 1957, I bought the Neshoba County Livestock Sale, which. . .handles cattle, mules, horses, hogs, and geese even." Of Neshoba County she recalls that because "I thought it was about the center of the universe. . .I was very surprised when I got to Millsaps to discover people even in other parts of Mississippi looked on Neshoba County as very backward." This realization, plus her personal convictions related to human values led her to become "a maverick" in her own society as the storm over racial segregation descended on her native state. Philadelphia became the locale of a bizarre murder case and internationally notorious when three civil rights workers were killed and buried in an earthen dam in Neshoba County. Her efforts to determine the truth, and to work toward justice brought her under great pressure, including economic discrimination and near ostracism. As a result of her experiences Miss Mars authored the book, Witness in Philadelphia, which was an alternate selection of the Book of the Month Club. She currently is interested in preserving the history of her native town and county through photographs, tape recordings and other means.