Garden party begins Southern Debutante Assembly’s 2018 ‘little season’
Published 6:00 pm Saturday, June 16, 2018
- Among the debutantes honored with a garden party in May were, from the left, Callie Frances Hall of Madison, Jessica Amis Basinger of Grenada, Lauren Ann Graham of Bailey, Caroline Lewis Parker of Meridian and Sydney Ballard Beckham of Houston, Texas. Not pictured are Clancy O’Connor Duggan of New Orleans; Caroline Finney Farrell of Germantown, Tennessee; and Hanna Pappas Thornton and Madison Grace Thornton, both of Meridian.
The Governing Board of the Southern Debutante Assembly introduced the 2018 honorees at a garden party in the late afternoon on May 25 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.
In the center of the parish hall was a towering arrangement of pink larkspur, stargazer lilies, pink and white snapdragons, David Austin mauve garden roses, pink porcelina spray roses, fuchsia liatrice, hot pink miniature dianthus, misty blue limonium and white daisies with variegated pittosporum, leatherleaf fern and lunaria silver dollar greenery. Throughout the parish hall and the courtyard, guest tables skirted in cream linen with pink linen overlays were centered with compact complementary arrangements.
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 white daisies and plumosa fern, accented with white satin ribbon. Each of the Assembly pages, similarly dressed, carried a single Gerardo gerbera daisy with leatherleaf fern, hand-tied with a white satin ribbon streamer.
Debutantes for 2018
• Elizabeth Mitchell Cossar, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Payne Cossar III of Senatobia.
• Clancy O’Connor Duggan, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Frederick Timothy Duggan of New Orleans.
• Lauren Ann Graham, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hardy Poindexter Graham Jr. of Bailey.
• Caroline Lewis Parker, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Bruce Parker of Meridian.
• Hanna Pappas Thornton, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Lee Kinsey Thornton of Meridian.
• Madison Grace Thornton, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Lee Kinsey Thornton of Meridian.
Pages to the debutantes
Callie Frances Hutton, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Thomas Hutton Jr. of Memphis, Tennessee.
Escorts to the pages
Williams Poindexter Morphis, son of Mr. and Mrs. Emmett Marcellus Morphis of Meridian.
