Dale Sallis Fleming Papers

Dale Sallis Fleming was born September 26, 1912 in Attala County, Mississippi. In 1917, his family moved to St. Francis County, Arkansas. During his high school years there, he began to form interests in journalism and history.

In 1931, Fleming returned to Mississippi to pursue higher education. After graduating from Holmes County Junior College, he went on to the University of Mississippi in Oxford and obtained a master's degree from the College of Arts and Education in 1939. During or shortly after his college years, he married his first wife, Pearl. The two were married for thirty-five years and had one child, Minnie.

Before World War II, Mr. Fleming worked as a high school teacher in Bolivar and Jasper Counties until he enlisted in the Army. He served in the Philippine Islands and in the Occupation Army of Japan. Upon returning home, he was hired by the Veteran's Administration of Jackson, Mississippi, working in Medical Rehabilitation. He served twenty months of active duty in the Korean Conflict, spending some time in France. Mr. Fleming retired from the Mississippi National Guard following the service in France, but retained his duties at the Veteran's Administration for many years.

From December 1961 to May 1965, Mr. Fleming and his wife, Pearl, wrote a weekly column for The Clarion Ledger entitled "This Week". The column contained information about Mississippi's involvement in the Civil War, chronicling weekly events from one hundred years prior (1861 - 1865). It included not only encounters in Mississippi but also key figures from the state. The column was extensively researched using published and unpublished materials. Later, he compiled his research for a proposed book, but it was never published.

After Pearl's death in the early 1970s, Mr. Fleming continued his passion for the Civil War. He spoke several times at meetings of the Jackson Civil War Round Table, Inc., with topics ranging from "The Army of 1000" to "The Campaigns of Jackson". He also attended various Civil War dedications and presentations throughout the state.

Mr. Fleming married his second wife, Mary Dell Hearn from Holmes, Mississippi in the late 1970s. They lived together in Jackson until his death on July 31, 1997.