Ula Barksdale Ross (1869-1947)

From the Official and Statistical Register of Mississippi, 1917.

    A one-term member of the Mississippi legislature and a former Mayor of Lambert, Mississippi, Ula Barksdale Ross can rightly lay claim to being the only man named "Ula" to be elected to state office in Mississippi. Born in Calhoun County, Mississippi on March 3, 1869, Ula Barksdale Ross was the son of George Washington and Sarah Catherine Gedford Ross. Young Ula was a student in the public schools of Calhoun County and married in December 1887 to Myrtis McDowell Linder (1870-1956), also of Calhoun County. The couple were wed for nearly sixty years and had three children, Herman Linder (1889-1962), George Lee (1891-1954), and Thelma Vance (1902-1976).

  For the majority of his life, Ula B. Ross worked in real estate and insurance, while also being a farmer. He would serve as Mayor of Lambert, Mississippi for a short period and in 1909 was an organizer of the Quitman County Bank.  In 1915 he was elected to the Mississippi state legislature as a representative from Quitman County and during his term (1916-1920) served on the committees on Corporations, Public Lands, Mississippi Levees and Roads, and Ferries and Bridges. Ross also chaired the committee on the Penitentiary. 

  Following his one term at the state capitol Ross returned to private life in Quitman County and in 1928 was again a candidate for Mayor of Lambert. Active in several non-political areas in his community, Ross was a member of the local Baptist Church as well as the Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, and Masonic lodges. Ula Barksdale Ross died at age 78 on July 4, 1947, and was interred at the Lambert Cemetery. He was survived by his wife Myrtis, who, following her death in 1956, was interred in the same cemetery as her husband.