OXFORD – Dorothy Burton Henderson, 82, died Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015, at Baptist Memorial Hospital North Mississippi in Oxford. A memorial service will be held on Wednesday at noon at Second M.B. Church in Oxford. A viewing will be held today from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., followed by visitation  from 5-7 p.m. at Hodges Funeral Homes, which is in charge of arrangements.

She received an undergraduate degree from Jackson State University in education, master’s degree in elementary education from the University of Mississippi and an Education Administration-College Teaching Specialist degree from Mississippi State University.

She was the first African-American professor in the School of Education at the University of Mississippi where she worked as an education instructor for 28 years. She dedicated her life to the teaching profession as a second-grade teacher in the Oxford School District for many years. She was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority and chartered Xi Zeta and Theta Iota Sigma at the University of Missisippi and the Sigma Gamma Rho chapter at Rust College. She served many years as a member of the Oxford School District Board of Education, the Vocation and Technical Training Board for Lafayette County Schools and Yoknapatawpha Arts Council.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Robert Lee Henderson and son, Glenn K. Henderson.

She is survived by five children, Deborah H. Gipson of Jackson, Tennessee, Roderick L. Henderson of Oxford, Sidney D. Henderson of Memphis, Tennessee, Hattie Elaine Henderson of Houston, Texas, and Doris Causey of Glen Allen, Virginia; two sisters, Mary Coger and Bernice Garrett, both of Memphis, Tennessee; brother, Daid Elias Burton of Nashville, Tennessee; 15 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be sent to the University of Mississippi designated for the establishment of the Dorothy B. Henderson Education Scholarship at the University of Mississippi School of Education.