April comes to a close today, and many items and events of note marked the month, but the month was also filled with losses for our community.

Almost each day in the pages of this newspaper, family losses are documented through obituaries published by surviving family members and friends.

Many of those deaths have deep roots in our community. Their spheres of influences often reach out across decades and across various economic segments of our community.

Obituaries are always fascinating to me in their variety and the manner in which they very clearly mirror our community. Regardless of what we do in our lives, we often wind up on the same pages with a menagerie of others representing various threads in the fabric of our community.

Two recent obituaries illustrate tremendous losses in community leadership.

Mamie Lee Mazique was 86 when she died. She was born in 1930, in the heart of the Great Depression.

She worked through her life to improve her education, something that she would in turn use to help and improve the lives of others.

Mazique’s involvement in the Natchez community was generous and multifaceted. She was most known, perhaps, for her 40 years of service to the children and families who participated in the AJFC Community Action Agency’s Head Start program.

Her love for children was evident in her years and years of work on their behalf.

Friends described her as sort of a quiet, behind-the-scenes leader during the Natchez Civil Rights Movement as well.

Mazique is one of those people whose legacy will continue to inspire for generations to come.

Natchez lost another fine community leader with the death of Sallie Ballard.

Like Mazique, Ballard spent her life in Natchez, except for her university attendance.

She also cared deeply for young people — her own children and grandchildren as well as many other children of friends, family and acquaintances.

Ballard’s volunteerism in organizations around Natchez is widely known, but many residents may know her best for her vision of making the community more attractive.

She created the vision for the 2000 for 2000 program that aimed to plant 2,000 crape myrtle trees before the year 2000.

The beautiful fruits of her labor can be seen all over Natchez.

Locals and visitors alike drive or walk past rows of the flowering beauties.

Those crape myrtle-lined scenic drives would not have happened had Ballard not possessed the vision and the deep interest in Natchez to make it become a reality.

Ballard was not merely a perennial volunteer. She was also an entrepreneur, having started the long-successful Cock of the Walk restaurant franchise with several others.

Ballard and Mazique were both laid to rest in the Natchez City Cemetery, along with so many other prominent Natchez citizens.

Each Natchez lady lived long, productive lives in which they gave back to the community.

As a result of their lives’ work Natchez is a better place. The indelible marks they made on Natchez — the landscape, the people and other aspects of the community — are evident all around.

They, along with so many others who spend so much time and energy working for others, are inspirations to us all.
Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.