MARY ALICE YANCEY LOVE

Tennessee State University Staffer
Tennessee State University Alumna

STORYTELLER OF THE YEAR AWARDEE, 2013

Born on a farm in Somerville, Tennessee, Tennessee State University alumna and 50+ year staffer Mary Alice Yancey Love didn’t have to travel far to attend college at Tennessee A & I State College in 1949 to know that she, was going places. Listed as Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges by the time she graduated in in 1952, she also received a master’s degree for A &I in 1956.

Marrying fellow alumnus Harold M. Love, Sr. in 1959, Love helped her husband became the third-ever African-American elected to Nashville’s first city council, a charter member of the inaugural Metro Nashville City Council, and a state representative for the 58th district of Tennessee. Their son Rep. Harold M. Love, Jr., also a Tennessee State alumnus, proudly holds the same office today—making Mrs. Love the only woman to have been both a wife and the mother of a legislator in the state of Tennessee. Having begun her career at what is now Tennessee State University in 1956, Love impacted generations of TSU TRIO programs and Upward Bound students. Affectionately known as “Mama Love,” she retired in November of 2013 after 57 years of employment at Tennessee State University having impacted scores of former students including Olympic Gold Medalist Ralph Boston and Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton, Jr.

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