Homecoming festivities begin on Thursday, April 24 at 5 p.m. when Summer will be honored during a Celebration of Service Reception at Plymouth Bluff Center. The event also will include a fish fry. Tickets for the fish fry are $10 per person, and the public is invited to attend.

In addition to graduating cum laude from The W in 1945 with a bachelor’s degree in history and a minor in art, Summer received a master’s degree in fine arts from Columbia University and completed additional work at the Art Institute of Chicago, the California College of Arts and Crafts, Seattle University and the Penland School of Arts.

She began teaching at The W in 1949 as an assistant professor. She became assistant dean of arts and sciences in 1980 and then head of the Division of Fine and Performing Arts when new divisions were created in 1982. She retired in 1987 after 38 years of service and was given the distinction of professor emerita.

An extensive traveler visiting most of the prominent museums in the United States and Europe, Summer has had her paintings shown in more than 60 juried exhibitions throughout the country.

She was one of 35 selected from 900 entries nationwide for an American Federation Art Travel Show, was honored by the Mississippi State Committee of the National Museum of Women in the Arts with the 2001 Honored Artist Award and was featured in the book “Art History in Mississippi: 1720-1980” by alumna Patti Carr Black (`55).

Summer, a member of Phi Kappa Phi and a life member of the College of Art Association of America, has been featured in Who’s Who of American Art every year since 1953. The W awarded her an Alumnae Achievement Award in 1986 for her lifetime of achievements in the arts, and MUW’s Fine Arts Gallery was named in her honor during Homecoming 2002.