Kay Webber Cochran knows the impact a scholarship can have on someone’s life.
At one point, she worked three jobs to help her daughters, Shawn Webber Kipfer and Gina Webber Wilde, pursue their own educations.
“They could not have gone without scholarship help,” she said.
Art has also played a significant role in Cochran’s life.
Her former husband, Jan Webber, a talented watercolor artist, was a founding and beloved professor in the Mississippi State University Department of Art, impacting students for over two decades.
Fellow watercolor artist Brent Funderburk taught with Webber when he came to Mississippi State in 1982 until Webber’s retirement in 1993, and the two formed an immediate friendship, thanks to their mutual love for watercolor painting.
“He was a smart, funny guy,” said Funderburk, who said Webber was valued for being versatile—able to teach graphic design, illustration and fine art—especially drawing and watercolor.
Funderburk described Webber as a sophisticated artist, an outdoorsman and a good professor who was able to relate to his students.
“The word we used to use is draftsman,” he said, “which usually meant a real fine artist who could control the brush and pen or pencil. He was an incredible draftsman. His hands were so elegant, and, yet, on the other side, he was like Daniel Boone. He knew everything about nature and fishing and hunting and all that; you could see it in his work. He knew the beauty of landscapes and trees and wildlife.”
“I never have heard a student say they didn’t like him,” Cochran added. “He had a great sense of humor and loved people.”
Webber passed away in 2010, and Cochran recently established a scholarship in his name to honor her daughters in their father’s memory.
“My girls adored him, absolutely adored him, and he was a really good daddy,” she said.
“Because my girls adored him so, I decided what better way to honor him in their eyes than to make a donation to Mississippi State.”
Webber not only left a legacy for the many students he taught but also for his daughters by sharing his love and talent for the arts with them both.
Wilde followed in his footsteps, attending Rhodes College on a full scholarship and then Southwestern University, majoring in sculpture. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley with a focus on community arts/ arts and consciousness.
“She can do anything, anything,” said Chochran, and her father agreed. “He said to me one day, ‘She’s got more talent in her little finger than I have in both of my hands.’”
Kipfer also loved the arts and followed her father’s path to Mississippi State, earning a bachelor and master’s degree in psychology. While at MSU, she was very involved as a bat girl, member of Delta Gamma and all things maroon and white.
“She loved State,” Cochran said. “She valued her cowbell almost as much as she did her diamond ring.”
Kipfer passed away in May 2025, and Chochran decided there was no better way to honor her daughter than by establishing an additional scholarship in her name at her beloved alma mater.
Both the Jan Webber Endowed Scholarship and the Shawn Webber Kipfer Endowed Scholarship have been established to help talented students in need of financial support who want to pursue a path in the fine arts.
“Gina and I both want to help a student who has the talent but may never get the chance to make it if they don’t have financial help,” Cochran said. “Some people have the ambition and talent but lack the financials. I believe in supporting the arts and furthering education, and if somebody is willing to work for it, I’m willing to give for it.”