Ruth Wilson Palmer's Obituary
Ruth Wilson Palmer, 92, passed away on Sunday, June 21, 2026, at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. A respected and much-admired educator, she taught successively at Hackleburg High School, Hamilton High School, and Bevill State Community College, where she served as Chair of the English Department. Her Commitment to teaching and love the literature were hallmarks of her career, as were the rigorous standards she helped her students achieve. Across a career of forty years, she guided generations of students to appreciate texts ranging from the work of Chaucer to Tony Morrison. She loved a quote from Virginia Woolf, "To teach without zest is a crime," an ideal she maintained in all her classes.
Ruth was born in May 1934, in Vina, Alabama , the youngest of Betha and Sumpter Wilson's nine children. She grew up in Northeast Mississippi, in the Pine Grove community. Ruth graduated from Florence State Teachers College in 1956. While the4re she won prizes in writing, including, as she liked to recall " a grand purse of Five dollars" for her essay "Patterns of Time." She went on to earn graduate degrees from the University of North Alabama in 1976 and 1979. She pursued additional graduate work at the University of Mississippi. In these studies she was stimulated by learning and working with her professors; however, bringing new ideas to her student was always the goal. Ruth often recalled that early in her teaching she was advised to remember "You are teaching the student and not the book." Likewise, she hoped to make each day in classrooms " an enjoyable experience for both the student and the teacher."
Ruth was predeceased by her husband of nearly 45 years, Bobby Brooks Plamer. She is survived by their sons, Robert E. Palmer, of Princeton, NJ, Timothy A. Palmer, Esq. and his wife Sue Palmer, Esq. of Franklin, TN, and Dr. Russell B. Palmer and his wife Dr. Sarah Palmer of Carmel, IN. In addition to her sons, Ruth is survived by six grandchildren, six great-grandchildren. and nieces and nephews. She was an enduring example of love and kindness to all her family, friends and students.
A Funeral Service will be held on Friday June 26, 2026 at 11:00 Am at the Hamilton Church of Christ. Visitation hours are Thursday, June 25 from 5:00 Pm until 8:00 Pm at the Hamilton Funeral Home.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN.
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