Mrs. Dorothy Jean Wilson

Dorothy Jean Harrison Wilson, of Clinton, Mississippi, passed away on September 11, 2021, and joined all of her family and friends predeceasing her in the loving arms of her and our Lord and Savior. A family visitation will be held for Dot on September 14, 2021 at Chancellor Funeral Home in Byram, Mississippi at 1:00 p.m. followed by a memorial service to celebrate her almost 91 years of life at Lakewood Memorial Park, Clinton, Mississippi at 3:00 p.m. Dot was born as the youngest child of Robert N. and Alma Walker Harrison in Hinds County, outside of the Clinton, Mississippi city limits in 1930. Older brother, Billy Harrison, and sisters Robbie Crane and Ruth Harrison, all preceded her in death. Dot grew up in the Clinton area and attended Clinton High School, excelling and becoming somewhat of a basketball legend in her high school years. At just above 6 feet tall, Dot was able to average 27 points a game in her career which included her high school, college and AAU competitive days. In an era when a young lady being 6 feet tall was a bit out of the ordinary, she endured continuing questions of “just how tall are you” and other less complimentary comments and turned all of it into her “fire” to take control of any game in which she played. Just 3 months before her death, she recalled and told a story of how one of the coaches of a team she played against put a “big old rawboned country girl” on her to guard, slap and scratch her and step on her feet to try and throw Dot off her game and keep her from scoring so many points. According to Dot, she took the slaps and scratches into the end of the first half and finally had enough, decided to get tough with her and introduced her to the sharpest elbows that country girl had ever seen. Dot ended that game with 49 points and a few scratches and bruises, but they otherwise won the game pretty easily. While working for the Mississippi State Board of Health and playing AAU basketball after college, Dot met the love of her life, her then basketball coach, S.A. “Billy” Wilson. Not long thereafter, with Billy concluding that he could not find a better woman to love and grow future basketball players with, they were married in 1952. Raising three children and suffering through all of them attending her Clinton High School’s historic arch rival Forest Hill High School, Dot and Billy were at their happiest while traveling to basketball and baseball games all over the country watching their kids play and then many of their “adopted basketball kids” at Forest Hill High School after theirs graduated and were no longer competing. Although Billy died in 1994 and left her to watch without him, one of her biggest sources of joy was continuing to enjoy watching her grandchildren and great-grandchildren play ball throughout the years. Dot was preceded in her death by both Billy and her sweet youngest daughter, Lori. She is survived by her daughter, Linda McGehee (Rudy) of Florence, Mississippi and son, Stephen Wilson (Michelle) of Brandon, Mississippi. Dot is also survived by her five grandchildren: Kim Griffin (Kevin), Kristin Davis (Tim), Madison Wilson Moran (Matt), Morgan Wilson, and Michael Wilson; and her six great-grandchildren: Kannon Griffin, Konnor Griffin, Kayden Griffin, Kenzie Davis, Maddox Moran, and Ripp Moran. Dot’s life, as full as it was with family and sports, would not have been as complete in love if not for her friends and her church. Dot and her family were members of Woodville Heights Baptist Church in Jackson for thirty years and gained many lifelong friends from those days. The last twenty-five years of worship for Dot began when she moved to Clinton and became a member of Morrison Heights Baptist Church, loving and cherishing her Christian brothers and sisters from Sunday school class there over the years. In lieu of flowers, Dot and the family ask that you consider gifting a memorial to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in her daughter’s name, Lori Wilson, in loving memory and thanks for the care and love shown to Dot, Billy and Lori during her treatment there.