An evening of pageantry and a focus on service surrounded the introduction of the Junior Auxiliary of Columbus 2017 Charity Ball king and queen Saturday at Trotter Convention Center. The presentation of King George Stephenson Hazard Jr. and Queen Margaret Jane Butler at the 67th annual event brought cheers from a capacity crowd. Festivities also included introduction of the court, 24 high school seniors who have collectively performed more than 2,400 hours of service in their community, schools and churches.
The ball and Junior Auxiliary’s annual Report to the Community support the nonprofit chapter’s numerous year-round service projects for children throughout Lowndes County.
The king
King George Stephenson Hazard Jr. is the son of 1970 Charity Ball King George Stephenson Hazard and Florence McLeod Hazard, one of the founders of the ball in 1951.
The Charity Ball king’s career after graduating from Rhodes College has been in education and journalism.
From 1968 until 1981, he taught English at his alma mater, The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was the school’s director of admissions for five of those years, and McCallie’s senior honor society named him a distinguished teacher.
In 1981, George joined the staff of The Commercial Dispatch in Columbus, edited then by former Charity Ball King Birney Imes Jr. From 1989 until 1993 he was the paper’s city editor.
From 1993 until 2002, Hazard taught English and Latin at Heritage Academy. He was the director of alumni relations and the school’s STAR Teacher in 2000. He also helped with the 2016 capital campaign.
Hazard has been on the boards of the Columbus Girlchoir, the Columbus Symphony Association and the Columbus Arts Council, while also working for the Cub Scouts and Friends of the Library. He is a director and secretary of the Lowndes Community Foundation and like his father, George S. Hazard, and his grandfather, B.G. Hazard, he is a trustee of the Frank P. Phillips Foundation.
He was a founding member of the Krewe of Aris and wrote “Comet Over Dixie,” the play presented at the 1986 Charity Ball. With his sisters, Eulalie and Florence, he helped establish the Hazard Lecture Series at Heritage Academy. Now starting its 26th year, these public programs honor Hazard’s father and his contributions to Columbus.
Hazard is married to the former Marian Hill. They attend St. Paul’s Episcopal Church where the king has been a vestryman, chairman of the long-range facilities committee, senior warden and a Sunday School teacher.
Their children, George Hazard III, James Armstrong Hazard, Lex Carlton Jackson Jr. and Carrie Jackson Russell, were court members of the Junior Auxiliary Charity Ball. King George is also the proud uncle of two queens, Florence Davis Matthews in 2006 and Margaret Fairfax Davis in 2013.
The Charity Ball king was honored to be in the company of previous kings at last night’s celebration. He remembers with special admiration four late kings: Carl Mckellar, Davis Patty, Billy McIntyre and Hunter Gholson.
The queen
Queen Margaret Jane Butler is the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Joel Butler. She is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Al Hatcher and the late Mr. and Mrs. Chester Butler. The Charity Ball queen is a senior at the University of Mississippi and will graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in communication sciences and disorders in May. She is on the Chancellor’s Honor Roll and is a member of 11 honor societies, including Phi Kappa Phi, Mortar Board and Order of Omega. This spring she will be inducted into Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.
Butler is a member of Delta Gamma Sorority where she served as vice president of communications. She currently serves as secretary of the Ole Miss Hand Band, a student sign language organization. She is the undergraduate vice president of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association at Ole Miss. She is involved in UKirk Campus Ministry where she served as Welcome and Outreach chairman and currently serves as treasurer. She was a member of the UKirk Haiti Mission Trip Team, teaching English and leading activities with preschool children and local youth in the village of Bongonette.
Throughout her college years, Butler has tutored children in the Oxford community through the Leapfrog Tutoring Program and the Oxford Boys and Girls Club. She used her proficiency in American Sign Language to sign Christmas carols at the Scott Center in Oxford, a school for children with developmental disabilities. She volunteered at the North Mississippi Regional Center through the enrichment program, which aims to increase daily living skills of developmentally disabled adults.
In the summers, Butler has volunteered her time as a leader of Vacation Bible School at First Presbyterian Church in Oxford and as a day counselor at Camp Rising Sun in Columbus. She also helped organize the annual Halloween festival for the speech and hearing patients at the University of Mississippi Speech and Hearing Center.
Butler is a 2013 AP honors and high honors graduate of New Hope High School. Among her many awards and activities, she was ranked third in her graduating class, inducted into the New Hope High School Hall of Fame and selected as “Best All Around Female.” She was a varsity cheerleader, served on Student Council and was in Beta Club.
The Charity Ball queen is a member of First Presbyterian Church in Columbus. While in high school, she served as president and vice president of the Presbyterian Youth Council of St. Andrew Presbytery in which she planned and led junior and senior high youth retreats at Camp Hopewell in Oxford.
Through her interest and abilities in American Sign Language at Ole Miss, she realized that working with the deaf and hard-of-hearing, and becoming a clinical audiologist, would be her career path. In the fall, she will join the Program in Audiology and Communication Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis to pursue her Doctor of Audiology degree.
Charity Ball Royalty
Past 10 years
2007 Mr. Thomas Kelleam Sneed
Miss Elizabeth Spencer Ford
2008 Mr. Charleigh Ford Jr.
Miss Bailey Blaire Griffin
2009 Mr. James C. Galloway
Miss Elizabeth Harper Ferguson
2010 Mr. Eugene Beard “Gene” Imes
Miss Jennifer Rose Adams
2011 Mr. John Thompson Bean III
Miss Madeline Frances Hardy
2012 Mr. Raymond Michael Waters III
Miss Kendyl Diane Hall
2013 John Eugene Reed Jr.
Miss Margaret Fairfax Davis
2014 Mr. Elton Sigrest Thomas Jr.
Miss Madison Ann Ford
2015 Mr. Thomas Leyton (Bud) Phillips
Miss Caroline Emily Borland
2016 Mr. Thomas Evans Whitaker
Miss Anna Gaines Gaskin
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