Rosedale Native Continues Family Tradition Serving on Mississippi Levee Board
Katherine Crump grew up in Rosedale and still lives there. In her early years, it didn’t occur to her that agriculture was predominantly a profession for men. Her grandmother, Evelyn Pearson, and her great aunt, Florence Ogden, were farmers.
“I grew up with them as role models, so women in agriculture were normal to me,” says Crump. “Many people have helped me along the way. One who stands out is Johnny McRight. Hiring me as a crop consultant was a huge risk for him and an unimaginable break for me. I loved that job better than any I’ve ever had.”
After earning a Bachelor of Science in botany and a Master’s of Science in plant pathology from Mississippi State University, her career path included working for the USDA Sedimentation Laboratory in Oxford and becoming the first non-clerical woman to work for the Mississippi Department of Agriculture. Next, she was employed as a crop consultant and staff plant pathologist for McRight Agri Management.
After she and her husband, attorney Robert Crump, started a family, she wanted more time for parenting and went to work for herself becoming a pecan producer with approximately 125 acres of pecan trees that she worked and harvested yearly. About the same time, she became Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Sillers Partnership, a land management company. She has also worked at Farmers Grain Terminal seasonally as a grain grader at the Port of Rosedale.
In 2020, Crump became the first woman elected to the Mississippi Levee Board in its 155-year history. She was re-elected in 2024 to represent Bolivar County on the highly regarded levee board. Her service is part of a family tradition. Her great grandfather, Walter Sillers, senior, served as president of the Mississippi Levee Board and her great uncle, Walter Sillers, Jr., served as attorney for the Board.
Peter Nimrod, Chief Engineer for Mississippi Levee Board, said Crump brings a lot of energy and curiosity to her position.
“She shows interest in everything going on Levee Board wise, and has been like that since day one,” says Nimrod. “She is a sponge. She soaks up information. She is an awesome Commissioner, for sure. She really wants to know it all and be involved. I think it is fantastic. She wants to know how the Levee Board evolved to this point and what we can do to move forward and be more successful. She definitely feels the gravity of the situation. She has past family members who have served on the board and is carrying on a family tradition. Her career has been in ag. She has always had a keen interest in that and, as you know, the Mississippi Delta is mostly agricultural and we have to have flood control. She feels the need and the call to serve as a Levee Board Commissioner.”
Nimrod also appreciates that she is the kind of person who never meets a stranger. If she is at a meeting or conference, she is not shy about introducing herself. She is very open, friendly and inquisitive, and loves building relationships.
Her husband of forty-five years is also a big fan.
“She’s highly intelligent, driven and willing to put herself out there,” says Robert Crump. “She’s done it multiple times over her adult life. Bound and determined to succeed in the ag world, she did. After getting her Master’s, becoming the first female crop consultant in the Mississippi Delta was her dream job. She is really gregarious and communicates well with people, which will take you a long way. She won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I’m very proud of her.”
She doesn’t make a big deal out of her ground-breaking achievements.
“I’m the one who talks about it,” says Crump. “She loves agriculture and has been around it all her life. Same thing with the Levee Board. She has been familiar with it through her family since she was a little girl. It’s in her genes!”
As Commissioner for the Mississippi Levee Board, Katherine Crump is sworn by law to protect people and property from flooding. That is done predominantly with the mainline levee bordering the Mississippi River.
“Its integrity is of the utmost importance for flood protection,” says Crump. “I urge all citizens to respect the levee because without it the Delta, as we know it, would not exist. In addition to the mainline levee, interior streams and backwater levees are under Levee Board jurisdiction. Backwater area flooding acutely affects Sharkey, Issaquena and Warren counties. Finishing the Yazoo Backwater Pumps is a top priority for the Mississippi Levee Board. It is a travesty that this final step in an overall flood plan from 1941 has not been completed before now.”
The Yazoo Backwater Pumps are the only pumping station left incomplete along the entire Mississippi River. She finds this unacceptable because economically and environmentally, the pumps would save crop land, wetlands, wildlife and timber, and lead to economic development in the South Delta.
“Currently, economic development is impossible because property and highways go underwater at the whim of the weather,” says Crump. “About 548,000 acres flooded and stayed flooded for over six months in 2019. Sensitive wetland flora, wildlife and timber cannot sustain themselves under flooded, anaerobic conditions, not to mention the horrendous effect flooding has on people in the area. FINISH THE PUMPS!!!! is our hue and cry.”
For the past four years, the area has not experienced the devastating multiple high-water events of the ten years previous to that. Currently instead of flood fighting, the Levee Board is proactively accessing areas of need be that raising levee elevation or accessing weak spots through borings and LIDAR technology. If such areas are discovered, they are being addressed by adding relief wells or seepage berm construction.
Crump was also recently elected State Vice-President for Mississippi on the Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association (MVFCA), a consortium of eleven states bordering the Mississippi River. It is a not-for-profit entity composed of public organizations that have responsibility for flood control, drainage, bank stabilization and navigation improvements in the Mississippi River Valley and its major tributaries. The association represents a large number of levee and drainage districts, port and harbor commissions and other state agencies.
“Many of the MVFCA members testify and provide comments for the record for public hearings and before Congress,” says Crump. “Recommendations are made for federal policy that impact public safety, economic benefit and regulatory rules in order to preserve our flood control and navigation systems and protect the environment of the Mississippi River Valley. Being part of such an important organization will deepen my knowledge of flood control, the infrastructure that enables reliable land use and water commerce and give me the chance to address public policy that affects the Mississippi Delta.”
Crump says being a member of the Mississippi Levee Board affords her the opportunity to be involved in the protection of the Delta’s agriculture resources and the safety the levee provides Delta citizens. She has deep respect for the levee, what it took historically to build it and what it takes currently to maintain it.
“The fine people I serve with on the Mississippi Levee Board are a constant source of wisdom and good judgment,” she says. “They could not have been lovelier or more helpful to me.”
She is also a member of the flood control committee for Delta Council. And she continues to serve as CFO of Sillers Partnership where her ag experience is helpful for the business that manages row crops, timber, hunting clubs and lake front properties.
Crump is the president of the Board of Trustees for the Bolivar County Library System. She also serves on the allocation committee for the King’s Daughters and Sons Foundation.
Bicycling and reading are her two of her favorite pastimes. Her biggest joy is her family. The Crumps have two adult children, Rob and Florie, and three grandchildren, Lilla and Myres Martin and Abigail Crump.
“My wonderful husband supports me in all my endeavors and I don’t believe I could do what I do without that love and support,” says Crump. “He hunts and gardens; I harvest his produce and cook. It’s a team sport!”