Brandon Garden Club, Inc.

Landscape Management Scholarship

Hinds Community College Foundation

The Brandon Garden Club, Inc. (BGC) established the Brandon Garden Club Landscape Management Scholarship in 2002-2003. In 2015 the BGC established an additional scholarship to honor Janet Fox McLaurin, BGC charter member and past president of The Garden Clubs of Mississippi, Inc. The purpose of the BGC scholarships is to help further the education of students in landscape and agriculture fields of study.

The recipients of the scholarships are selected by the District Scholarship Committee, which is appointed annually by the President of the College.

BRANDON GARDEN CLUB ESTABLISHES MSU SCHOLARSHIP HONORING JANET MCLAURIN

Brandon Garden Club, Inc. (BGC) has established a landscape management scholarship at Mississippi State University in memory of Janet Fox McLaurin to its impressive list of ongoing projects. 

Brandon Garden Club, Inc., The Garden Clubs of Mississippi, Inc. (GCM), was organized and chartered in January 1952, the year after Mrs. McLaurin moved to Brandon following her marriage to John C. McLaurin.  She served as local president, GCM state president, and National Convention Chairman for the National Garden Clubs, Inc. convention which was held on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1968.  She served as GCM radio/TV chairman, recording secretary, vice president, and State President from 1971-1973, and served continually on the state advisory board until her death. She served for nine years on the board of National Garden Clubs, Inc.  She participated in countless flower shows, landscape design schools, seminars, conventions, and board meetings during her years of active service. 

Janet McLaurin and the late John C. McLaurin were the parents of three sons, John C. McLaurin, Jr., Sidney L. McLaurin, and Anselm (Anse) J. McLaurin.  Janet was widowed in June 2004 but occupied herself with her many civic endeavors and especially with her six grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Both Janet and her husband, John, came from politically active Mississippi families.  Her uncle, Fuller Fox, was a member of Congress from Mississippi from 1897 until 1903, and her first cousin, General Fox Conner, was a mentor to General Dwight Eisenhower.  John’s oldest great uncle, Anselm J. McLaurin, served as Governor of Mississippi from 1896 to 1900 and afterwards in the United States Senate from 1900 until his death in Brandon in 1909.  John’s grandfather, Robert Sylvester McLaurin, served as district attorney for an area encompassing Rankin County for 20 years prior to his death in 1907.  His youngest great uncle, Col. Sidney L. McLaurin, was State Bank Comptroller until his death in 1942.  John's father, R. S. McLaurin, served as Mayor of Brandon for ten years.  John himself entered into politics, serving as Mayor of Brandon from 1956 to 1960 and then serving in the Mississippi State Senate from Rankin and Smith Counties from 1960 to 1964.  John, Jr. is continuing the family’s civic and political service as Chancery Judge, Place One, for Rankin County.