An era is ending at Copiah-Lincoln Community College as the college’s Director of Public Relations Natalie Davis is soon retiring after 25 years at the school.

She is a local media legend, as Natalie had a whole career selling advertising at The Daily Leader prior to coming to Co-Lin. She managed accounts all over town at a time when print advertising was booming, but wanting to slow down a bit, she took the job at Co-Lin with her children still young.

She never slowed down, but instead sped up as she became the front-facing name and voice for all things Copiah-Lincoln at a time when the school still had a campus newspaper, radio station and several publications that no longer exist today.

She has taught in the classroom, put together the yearbook, and was an ever-present presence at any Co-Lin event with her camera in hand.

She did all that while essentially building the office of sports information from scratch with great passion.

She went wherever the Wolves went.

She watched Keith Case make two memorable trips to the NJCAA College World Series for baseball. One of them being maybe the best team in school history and the other being a squad with almost as many injured players as healthy ones.

She saw Glenn Davis build a championship football program and Gwyn Young further build a legacy.

She saw future NFL first-round draft picks and state titles and more wins and losses than you can count.

She saw Co-Lin softball do the unthinkable and bring a NJCAA National Championship to Wesson.

She worked closely with Tom Goetz and Ken Hollingsworth and a variety of media outlets to make sure that coverage of Co-Lin athletics was readily available.

She pushed the good news of Copiah-Lincoln Community College in a variety of ways, but she really loved her career in athletics.

She saw my mama in town one day before I started school as a freshman and encouraged Mama to tell me to seek out Natalie’s class for the newspaper at Co-Lin. It was my first chance to write about sports and the class where I met my wife, Angela.

She was my boss for two years as I worked as her assistant. I got to see firsthand how she paired with the technology department to create a Co-Lin athletics live stream that is better produced than so many similar products at larger schools.

She spent many late Thursday nights, sitting in the press box, typing up a quick football gamer that she would then send to multiple newspapers for the next day or weekend papers.

She created media guides that are important, for they preserve the history of sports at the school. 

She gave much dedication and time and talent to Co-Lin, and her efforts helped make it the place to be.

She deserves our collective thanks for her work and my personal thanks for her mentorship.

Natalie, thank you, and enjoy your much-deserved retirement.

Cliff Fur is the sports editor at The Daily Leader. He can be reached via email at sports@dailyleader.com