Josie Allen Singletary

Josie Allen Singletary, 90, died at The Orchard in Ridgeland on Saturday, December 17, 2011. Visitation will take place at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 4000 Ridgewood Road, at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 7. A memorial service celebrating her life will follow at 11:00. Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

Josie was born in Comanche County, Texas, on June 1, 1921, to Dr. Alexander McAmis Allen and Rena Collie Allen. Even as a small child, she was uncommonly gifted at drawing. She went on to major in art at Texas State College for Women. It was while on a tour to Houston with her singing group from TSCW that she met Edward Lee Singletary, a star football player at Rice who sang in the school glee club. They fell in love, and, as with so many young couples of that era, they married, and almost immediately the groom went off to war. In this case, Lt. and Mrs. Singletary enjoyed a few short but idyllic months in California before he was sent with his Marine Corps unit to fight in the South Pacific. Josie returned to Texas for the duration of the war and lived with a brother’s family in Austin, where she was employed by the Texas Game and Fish Commission and illustrated the covers for their monthly magazine.

After Ed’s return from the war, the couple settled first in Wichita Falls, where Josie ran an advertising agency and did fashion illustration. Later, they moved with their young daughter and son to Corpus Christi. Ed Singletary’s work in the oil business brought the family to Jackson in 1960. Mr. and Mrs. Singletary formed many warm friendships here and considered Jackson home, even after work obligations took them back to Texas for a time. Returning to Jackson in1989, they had a happy few years here before Ed Singletary’s death in 1991. Mrs. Singletary continued to live in her house on West Cheryl Drive, where she enjoyed her friends, her grandchildren, and being involved with her church, Covenant Presbyterian. Josie was involved with a number of charitable and civic groups, including the Jackson Symphony, the Kidney Foundation, and the YWCA, whose cookbook she illustrated. She was a member of the Sherwood Forest Garden Club, the High Noon Club, and the Monday Club. In later years she relocated to The Orchard, after living on her own became difficult for her.

Surviving their mother are her daughter, Janet Singletary Guyton (and her husband David), of Baltimore, and her son, Daniel Lee Singletary (and his wife Lee), of Jackson. She is also survived by her grandsons Nathaniel Wilson Guyton and William Smallwood Guyton, of Houston, TX; James Clifton Guyton, of Baltimore; Daniel Lee Singletary, Jr., of Black Mountain, N.C.; her granddaughter, Beth Singletary Eddleman, of Oxford; and twelve great-grandchildren. Her two brothers, Clifford Morris Allen and Alexander Collie Allen, preceded her in death. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to either Covenant Presbyterian Church or Holy Trinity Anglican Church (building fund).