Dr. Kizzie "Anita" Gowin, of Shelbyville, KY and Clinton, MS, passed away on July 24, 2024.  The daughter of William Andrew Gowin and Kizzie Grey Murphy Gowin, Anita was born November 9, 1945 in Kentucky. After high school graduation from Shelbyville, she attended the University of KY where she received an undergraduate degree. Her educational journey took her next to Georgetown University (KY) where she received a master's degree and to Louisiana State University where she received her PhD in Spanish.

Dr. Gowin served Mississippi College as a faculty member for thirty-two years and as chair of the Department of Foreign Languages for twenty years. During her tenure, she served as an officer in regional and state modern language associations. She was active in a number of civic and professional organizations that included being a charter member of the Arts Council of Clinton and serving as an officer in the American Associations of University Women and the Mississippi Association of Women in Higher Education. Additionally she served as a member of the campus steering committee for SACS accreditation and a member and officer of the Magnolia Speech School Board. Upon retiring from Mississippi College in 2002, Dr. Gowin was awarded the title of Professor Emerita. Her investment and impact on the many students she taught is immeasurable.

Although in 1970 she made Clinton her adopted home, Anita kept the bluegrass state foremost in her heart.  When she retired, she began a labor of love restoring the childhood home she inherited in Shelbyville. Until her death, she maintained residency between Clinton and Shelbyville.  While at home in Kentucky, you might find Anita seated comfortably atop a tractor mowing the meadows surrounding her Kentucky home. She shared her love of nature, gardening, and animals with kindred spirits. Her creativity was expressed through the arts of stained glass and photography. Cards sent to friends often featured her photography of Kentucky wildlife and flora.

Anita had a lifelong love of sports and followed many college teams, though basketball was her favorite. She had an expansive statistical sports knowledge that amazed her friends. Friends all knew better than to call her during "her" teams games and if they lost, it was best never mentioned.

Known to her many close friends for her quick wit, her infectious smile, her love of travel, her love of animals, and her creative spirit, her passing leaves a hole in the hearts of close friends in both Mississippi and Kentucky, who she considered family. Dr. Anita Gowin will be returning to Kentucky where her ashes will be scattered, along with her beloved dog Willie, in the meadows of her Kentucky home.

Memorials may be made to Magnolia Speech School or the Mississippi College Foreign Language Lab which is named in her honor.