Early in the planning stages for Greenfield Farm Writers Residency, John T Edge, the developer of the project for the University of Mississippi, received advice that would prove prophetic.
“I met with the leaders of MacDowell in New Hampshire, our nation’s oldest artist residency,” Edge said. “Readers will be your donors, they told me, people who’ve enjoyed success and have depended on books and authors to introduce them to new ideas, new perspectives, new worlds.”
Greenfield Farm Writer’s Residency will be built on a 20.4-acre site between Oxford and New Albany, Mississippi, once owned by Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner. The latest gift to Greenfield Farm — $100,000 from UM alumna and Oxford entrepreneur Helen Graeber Overstreet — is a reader’s gift, honoring a family legacy of readers from three generations of women.
Overstreet’s mother, the late Helen Rebecca Phillips Graeber, known to her friends as “Becky,” was a lifelong lover of books, art, entertaining and cooking. In the last years of her life before she passed away in 2022, Becky Graeber lived in a vibrant assisted living community, where one of her closest friends was Edge’s father, John Thomas Edge.
“John T’s father and my mother shared a love of reading and would often talk about books together. They became very close,” Overstreet said. “She was an avid reader her entire life. My mom, more than any other teacher in my life, instilled in me how important reading is. So, in a way, this gift to Greenfield Farm is how I honor her.”
Overstreet’s gift also honors her daughter, Helen Rebecca Cornelius. It was Cornelius, an artist and graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, who introduced her mother to Greenfield Farm in 2024 during its Plein Air Invitational. The day did not go as intended.
“I was in the middle of fighting breast cancer and, on this particular day, I felt so sick,” Overstreet said. “The idea was that we would walk around Greenfield Farm because we love the outdoors, Faulkner, books and art, and this was something to share together. But I couldn’t even get out of the car, and I just cried. My daughter and I had a moment together as I laid in the back seat of the car, where we talked about what this place would be and how we would both enjoy it together one day soon.”
Rebecca Cornelius — an interior designer in Oxford with interests in architectural history, restoration and design — is excited for the future of Greenfield Farm.
“I can’t wait to explore the property as the cabins and studios are built and people start working there,” she said. “It’s the kind of place my grandmother would’ve loved to experience.”
The Greenfield Farm campus will be designed by the national award-winning firm Marlon Blackwell Architects of Fayetteville, Arkansas. It includes four studios and a gathering pavilion with the Julia Evans Reed Kitchen at its heart. The campus will also feature a restored farm shed and the late writer Rev. Will D. Campbell’s relocated cabin.
Each year, Greenfield Farm is projected to cultivate 50-60 writers who work in Mississippi or are inspired by the state. Writers will stay an average of two to three weeks for free and stipends of $1,000 per week will be awarded to those using the overnight studios.
Walking trails and communal spaces will connect writers to the natural world. Exhibits will tell the story of this land and the people who worked it, beginning with the Chickasaws, including the McJunkins family and concluding with Faulkner.
Overstreet and Cornelius are certain their matriarch, Becky, would have loved Greenfield Farm because of the time she spent at a mineral springs retreat called Allison’s Wells in Canton, Mississippi, in the 1940s and ’50s. The Mississippi Art Colony was formed by Allison’s Wells guests in 1948.
“My mom went to artists and writers retreats there. It was this beautiful, old fashioned, rambling resort where she could write, read, paint, garden, cook and just explore all her wonderful interests,” Overstreet said. “She met my dad there. It was the happiest time of her life.”
More than $5 million from private donors and the state of Mississippi has been raised to bring Greenfield Farm to life. And, as predicted, many of those donors have been lovers of literature like Overstreet.
“Helen Overstreet is a visionary entrepreneur. She’s also an avid reader,” Edge said. “Those qualities, plus her belief in Mississippi, make her an ideal collaborator on our Greenfield Farm Writers Residency.”
This gift to Greenfield Farm is the latest of many Overstreet investments in the university’s future. Together with her late husband, Mike Overstreet, the family has given nearly $2 million to support the Department of Music and Pride of the South marching band scholarships, the Patterson School of Accountancy, University Museum, the UM Library, various scholarships and many other campus needs.
“Helen’s generosity to the university she believes in is amazing,” said Charlotte Parks, UM’s vice chancellor for Development. “She is eager to help strategize, involve others and financially support so many areas of Ole Miss.”
For more information about supporting the Greenfield Farm Writers Residency, contact John T Edge, developer and director, at johnt@olemiss.edu or 662-715-9046.
To support the Greenfield Farm Writers Residency, send a check with the fund’s name written in the memo line, to the UM Foundation, at 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655 or visit online here.
By Angela Atkins/UM Development