Nelma Ivey, a native of Overton, Texas, fondly recalls raising her children in Kosciusko and being involved in many organizations with her husband, Marlin Ivey. She recently made a generous donation toward the renovation of the Skipworth Performing Arts Center.
Upon graduating from Overton High School, Nelma Ivey began her first semester at Kilgore Community College in Overton.
Ivey said that she was an active freshman in college and earned straight A’s. She was also a member of the renowned Kilgore College Rangerettes precision dance team.
“That was so much fun,” Ivey recalled. “While I was a freshman, my dad worked for Marathon Oil Company and was transferred to a field south of Hattiesburg.”
After her first year of college, she traveled to Hattiesburg to see her parents. She had plans of attending the University of Texas for her second year of college, but the unexpected happened.
“I got deathly ill,” she said. “I mean, it started off as just the stomach virus.”
Because of Ivey's condition, her doctor decided to admit her to the hospital. According to Ivey, her illness was caused by the heavy load she was putting on herself during her freshman year at Kilgore.
Nelma's parents felt that the best course of action would be to stay in Hattiesburg until she could regain her health. Then, she could continue with her plans to attend the University of Texas.
“I was a very compliant daughter,” Ivey said. “So, I told my parents, ‘Okay, I can do that.’”
She decided to go back to school after spending some time in recovery, and the University of Southern Mississippi was close by. Her first quarter at Southern Miss was the same year she met Marlin Ivey of Kosciusko.
In the moment they met, Nelma said she realized everything that had happened to her before this moment was divinely orchestrated by God.
“I met him that first quarter,” she said, and we just started dating and then got married.”
Marlin Ivey grew up in Kosciusko. After the two married and graduated from the University of Southern Miss, they had their first child, Joe.
In October of 1958, the Ivey family made the decision to move back to Marlin’s hometown. Marlin’s father, Kermit, who was native to Kosciusko, owned Ivey Mechanical.
“We moved so he could work at his father’s business,” Ivey said while talking about her husband. “When he first started working for the company it was just his father and three other people.”
In the first year after the Ivey’s moved to Kosciusko, Nelma was a stay-at-home mother to her first-born. A year later, Marlin became ill with hepatitis and was unable to work, so Nelma began teaching junior and senior English at Ethel High School.
According to Ivey, her husband couldn’t work for six to eight months and during this time thought a lot about Ivey Mechanical and what he wanted the company to be.
“The company was very successful,” she said.
By 1959, Ivey Mechanical had over 3,000 employees and Nelma and Marlin had their second child, Lori.
Both Joe and Lori Ivey attended Kosciusko schools and participated in the Big Red Band. Ivey mentioned that Joe took band in the sixth grade and played the saxophone and Lori was in band until her senior year as a flute player.
Growing up in Texas, Nelma was always able to express herself creatively. She was fond of art, reading, music and literature, and let her children use their own creative abilities in whatever they decided to do.
Between being a full-time mother, teacher, and wife, she also served many organizations in Kosciusko. Nelma was Charter President of Fun, Chairman for the Mississippi Arts Council, Chairman of the Attala Historical Society, Chairman of the March of Diamonds, member of the 21stCentury Club and more. She was even voted Attala County’s Outstanding Citizen in 1985.
“I loved living in Kosciusko and never felt like I was a newcomer," she said. “When my husband died in 2011, we had been married for 55 years and most of that time we were in Kosciusko.”
Nelma said her son Joe, who is a professor in Nashville, Tennessee and daughter Lori, who lives in Gluckstadt, enjoyed living in Kosciusko as well.
Kosciusko and its citizens meant a lot to the Ivey family. When Nelma heard about the renovations on the old junior high auditorium, she knew she wanted to help, even though she now lives in Jackson. Kosciusko and the fine arts will always remain special to her.
Nelma Ivey made a generous donation to the KFEE to help renovate Skipworth Center, and she is excited to see its progress.
“It’s going to be a wonderful thing to bring to Kosciusko,” she said. “I think this will be a plus for this area.”
She is grateful her gift will benefit the arts in Kosciusko and is happy to see that the community still cares about the performing arts.
