Retired PHS teacher dies in Highway 19 crash
Barbara Ann Mowdy, who spent nearly nearly four decades as an educator, — more than two of them as a math instructor at Philadelphia High School — will be laid to rest this afternoon following a fatal car crash Sunday evening.
“I attribute much of my professional success in life to Ms. Barbara Mowdy,” said PHS graduate and Philadelphia native David Bridges, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. “She was an excellent teacher, and those courses prepared me well for all of the math I would later take at the college level.”
Mowdy, 78, died in a three-car crash on Highway 19 just south of Bethsaida Sunday evening, according to the Mississippi Highway Patrol.
A visitation is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today (Wednesday) at McClain-Hays Funeral Home with a graveside service following at 1:30 p.m. at the Bethsaida Baptist Church Cemetery.
Mowdy, 78, died after her Ford passenger vehicle was struck by two vehicles as she was apparently preparing to make a left turn onto a county road.
Many other former students were remembering Ms. Mowdy on Facebook Monday.
“She taught ‘old school’ mathematics (Algebra, Trig, Geometry, Adv. Math) and the learning disciplines that were needed not only in math but in life,” said another PHS graduate and Philadelphia native the Rev. Hubert Yates, state director of Disaster Relief Ministries for Mississippi Baptists.
Ms. Mowdy was born on March 2, 1943, and lived most of her life in Neshoba County. She graduated from the Neshoba County Schools and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from The University of Southern Mississippi (formerly known as Mississippi Southern College). Upon graduation from USM, she obtained a master’s degree from Mississippi State University.
She began her long career as an educator in 1965 in Long Beach and spent the last 23 years of her career as a math instructor at Philadelphia High School where she retired in 1993.
After PHS, she went on to serve as an adjunct faculty member at East Central Community College from 1991 until her final retirement in 2004.
“Miss Mowdy truly had a love for teaching, whether at school in the classroom, or at home, assisting her multiple nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews with their math homework,” her obituary said.
MHP Sgt. Travis Luck said that the two other vehicles were a Toyota Tacoma and a Cadillac passenger vehicle.
Bessie Killings, 72, of Meridian, the driver of the Cadillac, suffered moderate injuries.
Michael Greer, 18, of Ridgeland, the driver of the Tacoma, suffered no injuries, according to Luck.
“The case remains under investigation and there are no pending charges at this time,” Luck said.
The accident occurred near the intersection with Road 515 at 6:53 p.m.
Luck said that Mowdy was stopped in her Ford at the intersection of Road 515 and Highway 19 when she was struck from behind by Greer’s Tacoma.
Luck said that Moody’s Ford was struck again in the roadway by Killings in her Cadillac.
A medical helicopter and the Philadelphia Fire Department’s Rescue One responded, according to a witness in the area.
Neshoba County Sheriff’s Office deputies assisted the Mississippi Highway Patrol in responding to the wreck, Sheriff Eric Clark said.