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NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Leah Jackson (jacksonl@nsula.edu)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
11/01/2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES -Pledges from a Natchitoches family will fulfill a scholarship opportunity for a Northwestern State University music student. The Natchitoches Service League Marcia Thomas Pendleton scholarship will be awarded annually to an upperclassman in the Mrs. H.D. Dear and Alice Estelle Dear School of Creative and Performing Arts at NSU.
The Marcia Thomas Pendleton scholarship was originally established through the Service League of Natchitoches during Glenelle Brown's presidency in 1981-82. Recently, the Thomas family pledged $1,500 per year to the NSU Foundation for the next 10 years to award the scholarship to a music or music education student with a grade point average of 2.5 or better. The family including Pendleton's parents, Mr. and Mrs. G.F. Thomas Jr., and five brothers, Gerard, Richard, Stephen, Jeffrey and Patrick Thomas, have also agreed to match any contribution the Service League makes toward the scholarship.
Marcia Thomas Pendleton was a lifelong resident of Natchitoches and attended Northwestern, where she was a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority and the Student Council. She graduated from Northwestern in 1973 and LSU Law School in 1977. She was a practicing attorney in Natchitoches and a member of the Service League when she died from breast cancer in 1981 at age 29, leaving a husband and very young daughter.
Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. G.F. Thomas Sr., are both 1943 graduates of Northwestern and have a special interest in Northwestern's School of Creative and Performing Arts.
"Music was always an interest in our family," said Pendleton's mother, Mrs. Mary Jean Thomas, who is a past-president of the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Society. Mrs. Pendleton's husband Billy was also a musician.
"We are extremely grateful to the Thomas family and the Service League for their support of the music program at Northwestern," said Dr. Bill Brent, head of the Mrs. H.D. Dear Sr. and Alice Estelle Dear School of Creative and Performing Arts. "All of our fine arts programs strive for excellence and scholarships for deserving students are important in that they help us recruit outstanding musicians, artists and actors."
"Perpetuating this scholarship honors the memory of one of our graduates and also benefits a particular area of interest," said Dr. Chris Maggio, director of Alumni and Development. "The cooperation between the Thomas family and the Service League of Natchitoches will ensure that a promising music student receives a quality education and that the memory of Marcia Thomas Pendleton will live on."