Mary Ann Hatten

Our beloved aunt Mary Ann Hatten passed away on June 28, 2023, at St. Dominic’s. Miss Hatten’s funeral services will be held on Monday, July 3, beginning with a private family graveside service at 9:30 a.m. at Lakewood Memorial Park. Visitation and memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., respectively, in the Chapel at First Baptist Church Jackson.

Miss Hatten was born in Rankin County on September 23, 1930, and grew up in Georgetown and Canton, Mississippi. She graduated from Mississippi College in 1953 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education and began her teaching career at Columbia High School. She later moved to Jackson and continued to teach History and Civics and serve as guidance counselor at Chastain Jr. High School. She earned her Master's Degree in Education in August 1964. She was a member of First Baptist Church in Jackson for over forty years.

She spent her entire career in public education often saying “God meant her to be a public school teacher.” Miss Hatten was much more than a teacher and counselor during those many years. She loved her students, family and friends with the love of Christ making a lasting imprint on hundreds of lives. There are many stories that could be told about how she listened intently, spoke with wisdom, and imparted a love that caused each young student to dig deeper, stand straighter and endure what they thought they could not. Her deep love and belief in the individual could be said to have been the light that helped them find their way and tethered them to a destiny that perhaps only she and God could see. You may ask how she became this singular person. The answer is simply found in her own heritage: a mother who taught anything worth doing is worth doing right and a father who loved and gave sacrificially to others on a daily basis. Oh, and could she tell stories. She told each of us our own stories linking us with our heritage. Our thanks will be returned to her by determinedly living out the destiny that she and God envisioned, and of course, being sure to laugh along the way just as she always did.

Miss Hatten was the youngest and the last surviving member of her family. She was preceded in death by her father Abb Louis Hatten and mother Mary McCorkle Hatten, sisters Nettie Louise Hatten Cottingham, Esta Elizabeth Hatten Spell Mellen, Dorothy Louis Hatten Rials, and brothers Dr. James Robert Hatten and Abb Louis Hatten, Jr. She was also preceded in death by nephew, Gerald Ray Cottingham, and niece Janet Spell Wicker and grand-niece Rebecca Leigh Sandifer. She is survived by nephews Charles Louis Cottingham, Michael Paul Cottingham, James Andrew Hatten, Richard Lobdell Hatten and Abb Louis Hatten III, and nieces Linda Spell Sandifer, Pamela Rials Walters, Cynthia Hatten Rogers and Kathryn Hatten Fuller. She is also survived by many great nieces and nephews and even some great-greats. Though she had no children of her own she rightly claimed as children all her nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to First Baptist Church Jackson, 431 North State Street, Jackson, MS 39201or to a charity of your choice.