Lucy Magee Waters

Lucy Magee Waters, born July 6, 1932, passed away on July 10, 2026, at the age of 94.

She was preceded in death by her husband of nearly 50 years, James Melvin “Bucky” Waters; her parents, Arthur Lee Magee, Sr. and Agnes Beal Magee; her sisters, Virginia Lee Smith and Annie Rose Magee; her brother, Arthur “Sonny” Magee; and her great-grandson, Brady Waters.

Lucy is survived by her three sons, James Melvin Waters (Debbie), Wyatt Lee Waters (Kristi), and Joel Beal Waters (Susan); her grandchildren, Adam Waters (Amy), Sam Waters (Morgan), Crimson Waters, Swayze Waters (Kendal), and Shelby Sartain (Bradley), step-grandchildren, Camden Jacobs and Sam Jacobs, and nine great-grandchildren.

Services will be held Tuesday, July 14, at Wright & Ferguson Funeral Home in Clinton, Mississippi. Visitation will be from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m., with the service beginning at 11:00 a.m.

But the facts alone tell only a small part of Lucy’s story. Her life was filled with family, friendship, humor, resilience, a love of visiting, and more than a few good stories—many of which she was happy to tell herself. And so, it seems only fitting to remember Lucy not simply by the dates of her life, but by the life she made between them.

As a little girl in Brookhaven, Lucy held the reins of a cart pulled by a goat as she rode through downtown. She had a black dog named Pooch and a neighborhood full of friends with whom she shared the kind of childhood adventures that become lifelong stories.

Among those friends were the Brookhaven Belles, a group of YaYa-like sisters who began their friendship in the third grade and supported one another throughout their lives.

While a coed at Co-Lin Junior College, Lucy met the love of her life, James Melvin “Bucky” Waters. According to family lore, she once feigned car trouble to get his attention. Bucky walked over and simply turned the car on. Somehow, the strategy worked. He was a coach, she was a coed, and they went on to share a marriage that lasted just a few months shy of 50 years. He was the love of her life, and she was his.

As newlyweds, they lived in the athletic dorm as chaperones, where their first son, Jim, was born, followed later by Wyatt. The family moved to Florence, Mississippi, where their youngest son, Joel, was born and where they spent many of their happiest early family years.

Christmas was always big at the Waters house. Decorations were often handmade, and when family gathered, sequins, scraps of fabric, and glitter somehow found their way into ornaments and decorations. Lucy had a way of making occasions feel festive and ordinary moments feel memorable.

She traveled with Bucky on Southern Association school trips, helping host receptions and enjoying the social life that came so naturally to her.

In the 1970s, the family moved to Clinton, where Lucy became the bookkeeper at Clinton High School. If you needed a school purchase order, game tickets, or a class ring, it probably went through Lucy.

Anyone who knew her heard her say that she “only had boys,” but at the high school she finally found some girls in her beloved office runners. Later, her sons married and brought more girls into the family, followed by grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Shopping trips to Dollar Tree and Four C’s were frequent excursions, but for Lucy, they were as much social outings as shopping trips. She loved a bargain, but she may have loved the thrill of the hunt even more.

After Bucky died, the Brookhaven Belles, friends, and family helped bolster her. Lucy loved to hold court, often referring to herself in the royal third person as “your mother.”

“You need to come see your mother.”

“Why didn’t you tell your mother?”

She loved making connections and figuring out exactly where everyone fit.

“Who are his people?”

“How do you know them?”

And she drank Diet Dr Pepper with such devotion that she referred to herself as an alcoholic where they were concerned—although she never drank alcohol.

Like all of us, Lucy experienced the struggles that come with living a life. But she had a gift for making good things out of bad things. She could spin the facts just enough to create a better truth. She had ideas about how she wanted life to be, but she also knew how to adapt to life as it was.

More than anything, Lucy was a social person. Visiting may have been her favorite pastime. The conversations did not need to have great substance because the real value was simply being with people. She understood that sometimes the greatest gift we give one another is our presence.

And now comes the part she often talked about.

Lucy made it very clear that she did not want a moment of silence at her funeral. Instead, she frequently expressed her desire for everyone in attendance to have a long moment of wailing and boohooing.

Which we will do now.

She lived her life fully, she was deeply loved, and she will be greatly missed. But today, as she would surely expect, we celebrate her.