Sympathy to Family and Associates of Dr. Frances Hunter
JONESBORO -- The university community extends sympathy to the family, friends and associates of Dr. Frances Hunter, associate professor of English, who died Wednesday night.
Hunter, who earned her bachelor's and master's degrees at Arkansas State, joined the English faculty in 1967 and specialized in poetry and fiction writing. For five years in the 1980s, she divided her time with University Advancement as director of development.
After completing her Ph.D. in English at the University of Mississippi, she served three years as vice president of institutional advancement at Georgia College before returning to A-State in 1991. Later she earned a master of fine arts in creative writing from the University of Memphis.
During her career she published extensively in professional publications and made presentations at professional conferences, including the annual Delta Symposium at A-State. She developed a scholarly interest in the poetry and music of Bob Dylan, who recently won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and taught an American literature elective course on his poetry.
Hunter organized Dylan Day as part of the Delta Symposium the past two years, bringing in scholars from throughout the country to discuss the musician's life, history and artistry.
She is editor of "Professing Dylan," a collection of 14 essays by professors who teach Dylan's work in college and university classes. Among her numerous publications, her analysis of Dylan’s "Tempest" appears in Dylan Disc by Disc, published in 2015 by Voyageur Press of Minneapolis.
Her obituary and plans for a memorial service on Monday, Nov. 28, have been announced by Emerson Funeral Home of Jonesboro.
