Paula Merritt / The Meridian StarDuffee Williams, member of the board of directors for Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience, announces Jerry Lee Lewis as one of five new inductees Thursday. Others inducted were Tammy Wynette, Bo Diddley, Margaret Walker Alexander and John Lee Hooker. 

The list of honorees continues to grow for The Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience Hall of Fame.

Five iconic Mississippians were announced as the third group of inductees during a news conference Thursday at the downtown Meridian facility: country music singer and songwriter Tammy Wynette; singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer Bo Diddley; singer-songwriter, musician and pianist Jerry Lee Lewis; poet and author Margaret Walker Alexander; and blues singer, songwriter and guitarist John Lee Hooker.

“These five individuals have enriched our culture through their talents as performers and writers, and we are proud to honor them in this way,” said Mark Tullos, executive director of The MAX. “They join a very distinguished group as Hall of Fame members of The MAX.”

The 2019 Hall of Fame inductees were nominated by a statewide committee comprised of arts and entertainment experts representing various genres and art forms.

“They are an independent group of electors selected by the (MAX) board who are not members or affiliated with the board and are from various locations throughout the state of Mississippi,” Hall of Fame chairman Duffy Williams said. “Each one has an area of expertise — i.e. literature, visual arts — that they bring to the table.”

Nominees are selected from a comprehensive list of influential men and women who have had an extraordinary and lasting impact as musicians, actors, media personalities, visual artists, culinary artists, authors and other talented artists and entertainers who trace their roots to Mississippi.

The announcement of the newest inductees is the first phase of honoring the iconic Mississippians. After the awards are made, they will be delivered to the families of the honorees.

“We plan to do some social media work with each of the communities where the honorees lived,” Director of Marketing and Communication Jerome Trahan said. “For instance, we’ll go to Nesbit (Jerry Lee Lewis’ hometown) to where there’s a family home or a museum and we’ll do an additional social media push for the recognition.”

Since the opening of The MAX, two previous Hall of Fame classes have been designated: 2017 and 2018.

The five new inductees joint current Hall of Fame members Jimmy Buffett, Willie Morris, Charley Pride, William Eggleston, Howling’ Wolf, Walter Anderson, William Faulkner, Morgan Freeman, John Grisham, Jim Henson, Robert Johnson, James Earl Jones, B.B. King, George Ohr, Elvis Presley, Leontyne Price, Jimmie Rodgers, Sela Ward, Muddy Waters, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Oprah Winfrey and Richard Wright.