By Meteorologist Paul Williams
Remembering Dr. Elayne Hayes Anthony: Her Story Lives Here
Some people influence your life.
Others change its entire trajectory.
For me, that person was Dr. Elayne Hayes Anthony of Jackson State University.
Dr. Anthony, who was born in 1953 and recently passed away, was a longtime professor and leader of the Mass Communications Department at Jackson State.
To many she was an educator, an administrator, and a scholar who helped build one of the universitys most respected academic programs.
But to me, she was the person who opened the door that allowed my career in television to begin.
Without Dr. Elayne Hayes Anthony, I would not be in TV today. Period.
The Test
Back in 1988, I had just finished pledging Omega Psi Phi at Jackson State University. If you know anything about campus life at Jackson State during that era, you know about the Q tree. It was a gathering place where bruhz would hang out, chant, laugh, and celebrate brotherhood.
Picture the scene: gold boots, torn jeans, an old fraternity shirt, and a group of young men enjoying the moment under that tree.
That is where I often was.
But every single day, I would leave that tree and walk into the Mass Communications building looking for one person: Dr. Elayne Hayes Anthony.
She was the head of the department, and I wanted one thing.
A job.
Or at least an opportunity.
Every day I would go by her office and ask for an internship or a chance in television. When she was not there, I would take a piece of paper, write “I want a job”, sign my name at the bottom, and slide it under her door.
Day after day.
Week after week.
I probably drove that woman crazy.
But I kept coming.
The Day I Quit
Then one day I finally got discouraged.
I had been trying and trying, and nothing seemed to be happening.
Television newsrooms at the time were willing to hire Black men, but usually for sports, especially if you had an athletic background.
But I was not trying to be a sports guy.
I wanted to be a news reporter.
So one day, right near the end of the semester, I said to myself:
“Maybe this just is not for me.”
And that day, for the first time, I did not go by Dr. Anthony’s office.
I did not leave a note.
I did not knock on the door.
I just stayed under the tree with the bruhz.
The Walk Across Campus
That was the exact day Dr. Anthony learned about an internship opportunity at WDAM, the NBC affiliate in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Dr. Anthony was a regal woman. Tall. Proper. Graceful. But when she moved, people paid attention.
She walked out of the Mass Communications building and headed straight toward the Q tree.
And she walked right through a crowd of chanting Omega men like it was nothing.
Then she stopped.
Looked me directly in the eye.
And said:
“You. Come with me right now.”
The bruhz immediately started laughing.
“Ooooh, you in trouble!”
I looked at her and said, half joking and half frustrated:
“Why? You aint got me no job.”
She looked at me calmly and said:
“Either get up now or forever regret not coming with me.”
That sentence got my attention.
So I got up.
The Lesson
We walked back to her office.
She did not say a word the whole way.
She sat down behind her desk and looked at me.
“You have been bothering me every day,” she said. “Why did you quit today?”
I told her the truth.
“I thought you did not care. I thought you were not getting the notes. I thought I was not even on your radar.”
She looked at me and said something that has stayed with me for the rest of my life.
“If you quit the day before you win, you lost just as badly as the person who never tried in the first place.”
Then she slid an envelope across the desk.
Inside was an internship at WDAM TV in Hattiesburg.
And she said:
“Now you better not go out there and embarrass me. My reputation is on you.”
The Quiet Mentorship
That internship changed my life.
But Dr. Anthony did not stop there.
Even while I was working the internship, she told me something I never forgot:
“If you ever get stuck, call me.”
And she meant it.
She would help me with the things that young journalists struggle with but that newsrooms do not always teach you.
How to tighten a sentence.
How to structure a story.
How to edit properly.
The small details that can make or break a young reporter.
She helped me quietly, behind the scenes, never asking for credit and never telling anyone.
She simply invested in me.
A Legacy That Lives On
Dr. Elayne Hayes Anthony was more than a professor.
She was one of the architects of the Mass Communications program at Jackson State University. Under her leadership, the program earned accreditation and grew into something that produced journalists across the country.
Even my degree from Jackson State in the 1980s carries that accreditation because of the work she did behind the scenes: the paperwork, the advocacy, the relentless commitment to building something meaningful.
People like Dr. John Peoples helped shape Jackson State’s legacy, and Dr. Anthony was part of that generation of builders.
The kind of educators who did not just teach classes.
They built institutions.
My Promise to Her
Dr. Anthony once told me something that I have carried with me for decades.
“I invested in you,” she said. “Now you invest in others.”
And she reminded me again:
“Do not mess up my reputation.”
I never forgot that.
Every time I mentor someone, encourage someone, or open a door for someone trying to break into this business, I remember where that responsibility came from.
One of Jackson States Stars
Some people receive public recognition. Others quietly shape generations.
If Jackson State University ever created a Walk of Fame, Dr. Elayne Hayes Anthony would deserve one of the very first stars. Not because she wanted the spotlight. But because she spent her life helping others reach it.
I thank God that our generation was blessed to know her. And I thank her for calling me out of the minors and giving me the chance to step into the major leagues.
Dr. Elayne Hayes Anthony will be deeply missed. But her legacy lives on in every student she believed in.
Including me.
