Beverly Ann Norris

Beverly Ann Norris, 62, died Aug. 16, 2019, in Colum- bus, Mississippi.

Services will be Tuesday, Aug. 20 at 11:00 AM at Me morial Gunter Peel Funeral Home in Columbus, with the Rev. Curtis Bray and the Rev. Dr. Lynn K. Barker officiating. Burial will follow at Friendship Cemetery. Visitation is from 9:30-11:00 AM Tuesday at the funeral home on Second Avenue North.

Beverly was born Feb. 2, 1957, in Columbus, to Camden Glover Norris and Lena West Norris. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brother, Edwin Riley Norris. She is survived by a son, Charles Alexander Merideth and his fiancé, Kayla Posey; a daughter, Lena Angell Knight and her husband, Kenny Knight, all of Columbus; sister, Marilyn Frances Norris of Bloomington, Indiana; sister, Jan Norris Swoope and her husband, Warren (Oop) Swoope of Columbus; six grandchildren, Ethan Neal Perrigin, Joseph Alexander Merideth, Cami Len Knight, Alexandra Norris Knight, Skylar Auldrianna Merideth and Aiden McKinley Me rideth, as well as a beloved niece, nephews and cousins.

Beverly graduated from Caldwell High School in Columbus before attending Mississippi University for Women. She grew up in the Baptist faith at Fairview Baptist Church, where her mother was a charter member.

For many years, she worked with her father and later, her brother at Dill & Norris Co. Since 2000, she was a dedicated volunteer with the Co- lumbus Arts Council before becoming, in 2011, its program manager and Young People’s Artist Series coordinator. There she devoted herself to the community she grew up in.

Her parents passed on to Beverly and her siblings an appreciation for music that inspired her to seek out diverse performances to bring to the Golden Triangle. They ranged from Metropolitan Opera soprano Angela Brown, the Vienna Boys Choir, Chanticleer and concert pianist Awadagin Pratt, to a host of songwriters, blues and soul art ists, including Dan Penn, Paul Thorn and Willie King. She also valued and worked closely with area musicians and artists to showcase their many talents.

Beverly established the Columbus Arts Council’s Blues for Willie Festival and Possum Town Tales Storytelling Festival and, in recent years, helped spearhead the annual Ghosts & Legends Tours. She was a volunteer coordinator for Market Street Festival and the Downtown ArtWalk, was active with Columbus Community Theatre and was a former member of the East Columbus Lions Club.

She served on the former Howlin’ Wolf Blues Society board. At the time of her death, she was a member of the Prairie Belt Blues Foundation board, which presents the Black Prairie Blues Festival.

Beverly also pursued a great interest in Native American and Celtic cultures, and had a lifelong love of animals, rarely meeting a stray she didn’t try to adopt. She felt enriched by the many friends, artists and music-makers who shared her love of performing and visual arts in the community she deeply cared about.

Pallbearers will be Tim Adkins, Paul Brady, Bo Jarrett, Fred Kinder, Kenny Knight, Ralph Null and Dudley Swoope.

Memorials may be made to the Columbus Arts Council, P.O. Box 869, Columbus, MS 39703 or the Columbus-Lowndes Humane Society, P.O. Box 85, Columbus, MS 39703.