The Governing Board of the Southern Debutante Assembly introduced the 2017 honorees at a garden party in the late afternoon on May 26 at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Greenwood.

The garden party is among the first events of the “little season.” The debutantes, pages and page escorts will be presented formally in December at the Assembly’s White and Gold Presentation and Ball.

Throughout the parish hall and the courtyard, guest tables skirted in cream linen with pink linen overlays were centered with various compact arrangements of white hydrangeas, pink sweetheart roses, stargazer lilies, gypsophila and spring greenery in terra cotta garden pots. In the center of the hall was a towering arrangement of hydrangeas, bells of Ireland, dendrobium orchids, porcelana roses, stargazer lilies and spring greenery, with a smaller complementary arrangement on the buffet table.  

While pianist Paul Brown of Greenwood played time-honored favorites for the gathering, guests were received by Mrs. Richard Cunliffe McBee III of Greenwood, advisor to the Assembly, along with board member Mrs. Thomas Upton Black Jr. of Greenwood.

Wearing long afternoon dresses in pastel shades, the debutantes received carrying the traditional white wicker garden baskets of daisies and plumosa fern, accented with white satin ribbon. Each of the Assembly pages, similarly dressed, carried a single gerbera daisy with plumosa fern, hand-tied with white satin ribbon.

Debutantes for 2017

Darden Majure Pilkinton, daughter of Mrs. Todd Clarence Tauzin of Ridgeland and Dr. James Clark Pilkinton of Boligee, Alabama

Leah Margaret Thompson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Lee Thompson of Meridian

Pages to the debutantes

Marguerite Elizabeth Roberson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Marion Roberson II of Vicksburg