Selene Dunn Maddox has been practicing law, specifically bankruptcy law, in north Mississippi for over 30 years, but she has never forgotten her roots in the Delta and Indianola.
The impact the town and Indianola Academy had on her as a child was profound, but it was obvious by the attendance at last week’s investiture ceremony in Aberdeen – where Maddox was sworn in as a United States Bankruptcy Judge – that the impact she had on Indianola was just as profound.
Judge Sharion Aycock administered the oath to Maddox.
“It was very emotional,” Maddox said. “It was very heartwarming to have so many people from the Delta to attend. I had many classmates and dear friends who attended. It was especially special for Charlotte Buchanan to come. She was my mother’s best friend during the later years of her life, so that was certainly very special. I had many friends that I grew up with to attend.”
The daughter of Anne Floyd and Thomas E. Dunn, Maddox said the biggest impact came from her mother.
“My mother was always such a tremendous influence on my life, and she was certainly very career oriented and pro education,” she said. “It was never a question of if you were going to college, it was just “where are you going?”
Maddox was driven toward success at home and at school.
“The teachers at Indianola Academy were just at the top of the educational system,” Maddox said. “With that background that I had, it just enabled me to excel in the higher education, in undergraduate school and law school.”
She said that her teachers at IA were both mentors and friends, one of which made the journey to Aberdeen last week to attend the ceremony.
“Lynn Delas, who was one of my teachers attended,” she said. “I was so excited and ecstatic to see her…That was very special for her to be there.”
Also, Tony and Evelyn Roughton, owners of The Crown Restaurant in Indianola were present.
It was at Indianola Academy where Maddox first developed an interest in law.
“I knew that I wanted a professional career,” Maddox said. “I had always been interested in the law. I had been around attorneys in Indianola who certainly had an impact on my life.”
After leaving Indianola Academy, Maddox went to the University of Mississippi, where she attained her B.B.A. in 1983. Four years later, she would graduate law school.
She’s practiced law away from home for many years, but she said it’s the social, cultural and educational foundation that she received in the Delta that has allowed her to be successful.
“Once you leave there, you never really leave,” Maddox said. “It never leaves your heart. I consider myself a Delta girl.”
After graduating law school, she began practicing bankruptcy law, where for many years, she worked two fulltime jobs, one in her law practice and the other as a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee (until she began to serve her first term on the bench).
Maddox said that north Mississippi has the second highest caseload of bankruptcy cases per capita in the United States, and there has been a need for an additional bankruptcy judge in north Mississippi.
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently granted a judgeship to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
“That is the judgeship I have taken now,” she said. “To have the opportunity to do that is a once in a lifetime, once in many lifetimes of an opportunity, and I am so thankful for that.”
Maddox said her 30 years of law practice and being on the bench have prepared her for this next journey.
“That has given me an insight that I think is unique, because I’ve represented debtors, creditors and served as a bankruptcy trustee,” she said. “I have the ability to take all of that life experience and practice and then use that to assist me in making the decisions on the bench that are somewhat many times hard to make.”
Maddox said that many of those old classmates and friends from Indianola who were not able to make it last Thursday took the time to call her and congratulate her.
“This has been a very special time for me,” Maddox said. “It makes you realize how many friends you have and how many people love you, and it’s just not something that you take for granted at all.”
