James Dewey McChesney

Coleman Funeral Home of Oxford James Dewey McChesney, 86, passed away on July 17, 2026 at his residence is Etta, Mississippi. A visitation will be held Sunday, July 26, 2026 from 5:00PM until 7:00PM at Coleman Funeral Home of Oxford (601 Commerce Parkway, Oxford, MS, 38655). A funeral service will be held Monday, July 27, 2026 at 11:00AM at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church (650 MS-15, New Albany, MS 38652), with a visitation an hour prior to the service. As children, when we first asked him where he was born, his reply was “I wasn’t born! I was hatched on a stump by an old black crow!” We were young enough to consider it for a moment. Later, he told us he was born the first child of Ernest and Florence McChesney on August 27, 1939, assisted into this world by his grandmother, his mother giving birth on the kitchen table of a farmhouse in north Missouri. That family grew with the addition of two sisters; Betty and Roberta. Their family lived and farmed in Missouri, eventually settling in Pleasant Hill, southeast of Kansas City. Dad was a member of the Pleasant Hill graduating class of 1957. He participated in football, basketball, and track, with an excellent record in classwork. While living in Pleasant Hill, his father worked for Ford Motor Company, and Dad was able to win a scholarship from the company to help with college expenses. Tellingly, his motto quoted in the 1957 yearbook for Pleasant Hill is “Knowledge is power”. The scholarship award ceremony in Detroit, Michigan, was a turning point in his life, and in my mother’s. Both of my grandfathers worked for Ford Motor Company in 1957. Both my mother (who also graduated from high school in 1957) and father won scholarships. They met at the ceremony, and the rest is history as they say; marriage, seven children, 23 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren. They remained happily married and deeply devoted to each other until my father’s death. My father attended William Jewell College in Liberty, MO, for a year, then transferred to Eastern Michigan University to join my mother. They were married June 13, 1959. They spent the summer in north Missouri, Dad mowing roadsides to pay the bills. That fall they moved to Ames, IA, to attend Iowa State University, staying close to family farm holdings in Missouri. Dad considered veterinary school but found a fascination with chemistry instead. Upon graduation, with a son, Daniel, in hand, they decamped to Columbus, OH, for an internship with Battel, where Lisa joined the family. From there, it was on to Indiana State University in Bloomington for Dad’s doctorate and the addition of two more family members, Thomas and Elizabeth. After graduation, Dad took up the University of Kansas on their offer of a job, spending time in the Botany and Medicinal Chemistry Departments, his interests centering on potential plant-sourced pharmaceuticals. He and my mother also cultivated their love of the land on an 80 acre farm just to the west of Lawrence, KS. Margaret and Amy were added to the family there. Opportunity knocked in 1978 in the form of a job as department head of the Pharmacognosy department with the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy in Oxford. We loaded up and headed south. At the University, Dad served as the Pharmacognosy department head, and then Director of the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (RIPS). He was instrumental in the establishment of the Natural Products Research Center; a unit of the USDA Agricultural Research Service located on the University of Mississippi campus. I must add that there was yet another addition to the family here in Oxford; Matthew. He is the only one of us as tall as Dad. Throughout their marriage Mom and Dad kept a communion with the land; they lived on and operated a farm in northeast Lafayette County, MS from 1978 until this day. They also contributed extensively to several philanthropies through the church and other organizations. On retirement from the University of Mississippi, he worked in industry and privately on research involving the development of anti-cancer agents and continued to do so until shortly before his death. The emphasis was on maximum impact on the cancer and minimum impact on the patient. Throughout his career he worked in collaboration with other researchers from around the world in a search for natural products and derivatives that might have possible application to the treatment of disease. He is survived by his loving wife, Sally Cassidy McChesney of Etta; his three daughters, Lisa McChesney-Harris and Elizabeth Moody of Vernon Hills, Illinois, and Margaret Pearson (Lewis) of Flora, Mississippi; his three sons, Daniel McChesney (Colleen) of Oxford, Mississippi, Thomas McChesney (Angie) of Halltown, Missouri, and Matthew McChesney (Kara) of Dallas, Texas; and his son in law, Jeff Cheney of Oxford. He is preceded in death by his mother and father, Florence and Ernest McChesney; his two sisters Betty Saling and Roberta Lind; and his daughter Amy Cheney. We are: Daniel, Lisa, Thomas, Elizabeth, Margaret, Amy (in absentia),and Matthew along with our children and grandchildren; and we are all very proud of James Dewey McChesney. The staff at Coleman Funeral Home of Oxford is honored to serve the family during this challenging season of life. Condolences may be expressed online on his Tribute wall at www.colemanfuneralhomeox.com.

James Dewey McChesney

August 27, 1939 - July 17, 2026

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