Ruth Khayat Boone

Edna Khayat Boone, beloved wife of Thomas Holloman Boone, died on July 17, 2016. She was born on January 20, 1932 in Jackson, MS to Edward Assad Khayat and Eva Pates Khayat. She grew up in Moss Point, MS, and attended Millsaps College where she received a BA in English, and later in her life, earned a Masters Degree in Adult Education from the University of Southern Mississippi. While at Millsaps, Edna met her devoted husband Thomas, to whom she was blissfully married for 61 years. She is survived by her husband, Tom, their daughters Kathy Boone and Beth Boone, grandsons, Patrick Rowe, Kaleb Smith and Thomas Saenz Boone, her brothers and sister, Edward Khayat, Robert Khayat and Kathy Murray. Edna dedicated her entire life to community service, education and social justice. In her early career she was a school teacher, and later, the Director of the Idlewild YWCA in Jackson, MS. From 1970-1980 she worked, together with Tom, at LAOS, an ecumenical learning service organization which provided mission opportunities for lay people throughout the world. In 1985, Edna became the Director of The New Horizons Program for Displaced Homemakers on the JD Campus of the MGCCC, where she worked until her retirement in 1999. Edna was a fearless and visionary community leader who, together with Tom, was at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement in the nineteen sixties in Mississippi, and throughout her lifetime she remained a tireless advocate for women and for people in need. She will be remembered by her devoted family as the warmest, most loving and beautiful person in the world. There could be no more exquisite wife, mother, grandmother and sister than Edna Boone. Visitation will be on Wednesday, July 20, from 1pm until 1:45pm, with a 2pm church service, all at St. John's Episcopal Church. The Ocean Springs Chapel of Bradford O'Keefe Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.