Jann Terral Ferris, Vicksburg artist and arts leader who spearheaded a curriculum that won recognition for a Vicksburg elementary school, died Tuesday, June 23, 2009, in Covington, La. She was 59.

“She was a dear friend, an extraordinary artist, and a loving and caring arts educator,” said Randy Jolly, a retired Vicksburg public school art teacher who is director of the Samuel Marshall Gore Art Galleries at Mississippi College.

Jann Ferris was the wife of the late Grey Flowers Ferris, former Mississippi senator and educator who died just over a year ago. The Ferrises married in June 1970, and Jann Ferris described her life with him as “an adventure.”

In addition to her husband, Ferris was preceded in death by her daughter, Jessica Shelby Ferris.

Jann Ferris studied art in college, graduating with a BFA in studio art and later earning master’s degrees in art education and in administration from Mississippi College.

Her life was marked by creativity, said Lesley Silver, owner of The Attic Gallery on Washington Street, who first met Ferris in 1970. Art, jewelry, beads, necklaces, weaving — “anything she touched she turned into art,” Silver said. “She lived her life with grace and creative beauty.”

“Freefall into Grace,” an exhibition of Ferris’ pen and ink drawings has been featured since mid-April at the gallery, and Silver said these types of drawings had absorbed Ferris in recent years. Pen and paper were easy for her to carry with her wherever she went during her three-year illness, Silver said.

“She would put her pen on the paper and draw without lifting it, which is very difficult to do,” Silver said. Ferris liked to draw people. “That’s what she cared about most.”

For public schools, she initiated Project ABC — Arts in the Basic Curriculum — a program of teaching standard academic concepts through the arts that grew into the Whole School Arts Initiative through Mississippi Arts Commission. “She was an innovator and an inspiration for many people in this state,” Jolly said.

The program, initially funded through a grant that Ferris obtained, earned Beechwood Elementary School a Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1998 and put the school in the spotlight as a national model for educational excellence.

“She was interested in children and their ability to learn,” Jolly said. “She used the arts as another way to help children grasp the big concepts of reading, writing and arithmetic — and build their thinking skills.”

Karen Burke, former personnel director for local public schools, worked with Ferris in obtaining the grant and getting the program started. “She was passionate, creative, visionary,” Burke said. “I can’t imagine what I would be now if I hadn’t had the chance to work with her.”

Burke said Project ABC is used by at least 100 schools across the state.

Ferris’ art was also widely exhibited.

“Viewers who know Jann may be surprised to see these works, surprised that they exist, because of her mastery of so many other forms,” wrote Mississippi Museum of Art director Betsy Bradley when Ferris’ “Freefall into Grace” drawings were exhibited there this year. “Those who know her, however, will not be surprised by their quality, their exuberance, their integrity, their beauty, or their joy — not surprised because these are the traits that define their creator.”

“She radiated,” Silver said. “She had an inner beauty that just came through.”

Ferris is survived by her parents, Dr. William Terral and Lylen Terral, who live in Covington; a daughter, Lylen, of Portland, Ore.; a son, Jason, of New Orleans; four brothers; two grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

Services will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Vicksburg. Visitation will be from 9 a.m. to the hour of service in the church’s Ward Hall and under the direction of Glenwood Funeral Home.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com