Alma Clyde (Billingsley) Shaw
Birth: 29 FEB 1892 in Lodi, Mississippi
Death: 24 APR 1984 in Oxford, Mississippi

Father: DeVotie Billingsley b: 6 DEC 1858
Mother: Frances Cornelia "Connie" Aldridge b: 18 OCT 1865

Married: Oliver Abbott Shaw b: 24 SEP 1870

Children
Oliver Abbott Shaw , Jr. b: 16 APR 1918
Winfred Aldridge Shaw b: 6 Dec 1919
Ann Brook Shaw b: 25 DEC 1920
Francis Shaw b: 19 MAY 1922
Mary Katheryn Shaw b: 3 JAN 1926
Marnard Shaw b: 1930

Alma Clyde Billingsley Shaw was born in Lodi, Mississippi on Feb. 29, 1892. When she was seven, her family moved to Winona, Mississippi where she grew up with her 11 siblings. Her father ran a large farm, was the Sheriff for a term, and became a banker. Alma received her degree in Education from Blue Mountain College, taught mathematics and coached the women's basketball teams at the Vaiden and Winona high schools. In 1917, she married the Superintendent of the Winona school system, Oliver Abbott Shaw. In 1920, she moved with her growing family to Oxford. After the birth of her sixth child, she earned a BA degree from the University of Mississippi and followed it with a Masters degree in philosophy. She taught as a substitute teacher for awhile at the University High School in Oxford, a school she and her husband established. For many years following her husband's death, she built and ran a booming egg business (O. A. Shaw Eggs) at her home in Oxford, and was the first person in the state to use individually caged hens for egg production. She was an avid artist and painter, gardener, and friend to any who came to her door. After the collapse of South Vietnam, she housed many Vietnamese refugees at her home. Throughout her life, she took in those who needed board, family and friend alike, and would never refuse to assist a person in need. For this she was well known. Alma was not pretentious or vain, possessed an outgoing, cheerful personality, and was able to see humor in even the most dire of situations. Up to the time of her death, she and her family made their home in the antebellum house which sits a half mile east of the town square on Jackson Avenue. She was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church in Oxford, and was the director of the University student program. It is an attribute for a person to leave everyone feeling as though they were the closest of friends. This she did, her finest of many accomplishments in a full life.