Phil Sutphin and his wife, Peggy, took Ovid and Carol Vickers out to lunch at Dancing Rabbit Country Club not too long ago in March.
The Sutphins and Vickers have been longtime friends since Phil came to Decatur to join the staff at East Central Community College. Phil came as the Dean of Students in the late 1980s, and the Vickers had already been in Decatur for over 30 years at the time. Carol was an English teacher, and Ovid was a department chair and still teaching literature, among the other activities he participated in with the junior college.
At this lunchtime gathering, Phil and Ovid each had a Reuben sandwich, something the two always enjoyed there.
“Ovid really liked their Reuben sandwiches up there,” Phil said. “The first time we ate up there, he told me that’s what he normally ate there. So, I got it in and liked it, and that’s what we normally had. And he really enjoyed it that day as well.”
What Sutphin didn’t know is that lunch would be the last time they would go out together. Not long after, Vickers went into the hospital and then never came home.
Ovid Vickers, who was a revered Mississippi folklorist, essayist, poet and teacher, died March 31. He was 89.
Vickers, a Gadsden, Ala., native, was on staff at East Central Junior College, later named East Central Community College, from 1955-1995. He wrote a weekly column in the then Union Appeal, Neshoba Democrat and other community newspapers covering the East Central area. He was also a fixture of the Democrat’s annual Fair Times publication, which published each day of the Neshoba County Fair.
Many of his short stories, essays and poems have appeared in numerous scholarly journals and mainstream media publications such as Southern Living, Mississippi Magazine, The Texas Review and The Southern Quarterly. His poetry is included in two volumes of the University Press of Mississippi’s books, “Mississippi Writers: Reflections of Childhood and Youth” and “An Anthology of Mississippi Writers.”
One thing that Sutphin said about Vickers was his penchant for storytelling.
“Ovid always had a story to tell,” Sutphin said. “And you always enjoyed his stories. When you heard it again, you still enjoyed it. If he ever had a chance to speak at an event, you were going to hear many of his stories, and they were great.”
One of the last speaking engagements Vickers has was when he spoke at the Decatur Chamber of Commerce banquet in 2017.
“He was a little bit hesitant at first, but it didn’t take much to convince him to do it,” said Sutphin, who since retiring as president of ECCC about 10 years ago has stayed active in Decatur’s Chamber of Commerce and city business. “Once he got up there, he just started telling his stories again. It really means a lot that it was one of his final speaking engagements.”
During that speaking engagement, Vickers told many anecdotes. Some of which were recorded in his two books “The East Central I Knew: A History of East Central Community College” and “Notes in the Margin: A Collection of Columns about East Central Community College.”
“People in the state of Mississippi are different, and the fact that we are makes us a fascinating group of people,” Vickers said during the 2017 speech. “It makes us a group of people that other people want to know. It makes us stand out as individuals, and that is a great thing.”
Vickers was one time asked why he stayed in Decatur. He replied with his usual wit.
“He was asked, ‘Why would you want to stay at some po-dunk college in Decatur, Mississippi?’” Sutphin said. “He would then ask them, ‘Do you have a building named after you?’ He really loved being here. He got to be a big fish in a little pond instead of a little fish in a big pond.”
ECCC President Billy Stewart said Vickers is an enormous part of the foundation of the college.
“Mr. Vickers was a true icon on this campus for over 40 years as an instructor, and he remained an indispensable part of our East Central family during his 25 years in retirement,” Stewart said. “He excelled in the classroom as confirmed by the testimonies of his former students and his numerous teaching honors, and he was an ambassador for this college outside of the classroom, as evidenced by being one of only eight individuals to ever be awarded the college’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Vickers touched the lives of thousands of people in a profound way over his lifetime, mine included, and he will be greatly missed.”
Vickers is survived by his wife of 59 years, Carol; three children, Nona Vickers, Harriet Vickers Laird and Ovid Vickers III; six grandchildren; and three great grandchildren.
A private graveside service was held Saturday at Cedarlawn Cemetery in Philadelphia.
