Lifelong Bulldog Shares Passionate Legacy

One would be hard pressed to find someone more passionate about people and Mississippi State University than Eileen Carr-Tabb. A proud alumna of the university she calls home, she has a lifetime of memories connected to MSU—many of which are recalled with tears of joy and gratitude. And she doesn’t miss a home game when the Bulldogs are playing. Recognizing what it took to get her MSU degree, she’s doing her part to help other ambitious Bulldogs become a part of the great tradition.

Carr-Tabb was raised in a home on Vine Street, no more than a mile from MSU’s campus, just off Highway 12. Growing up, she fondly recalls the many walks she made with her sisters to watch the passing cars on their way to the football game at Davis Wade Stadium.

“We could hear the cowbells and see the lights during the night games and always said that one day it would be us in one of those cars going to watch the Bulldogs play,” she said. “All we knew was Mississippi State and we wanted to be a part of it.”

Her parents were some of the hardest working people she’s ever known. They worked multiple jobs, including serving as staff members on MSU’s campus, to take care of their family. Carr-Tabb’s father, John Carr Jr., worked in the university laundry services before going to work for Peoples Bank as a courier. Her mother, Queen Carr, was a custodian. When their day-jobs at MSU ended, the couple began another shift cleaning local business in the evenings.

“After school, our parents would take my sisters and me with them to their job. While they cleaned, we sat on the floor and did our homework assignments,” said Carr-Tabb, the youngest of the three daughters. “They worked so hard to make sure the three of us would have opportunities to go to college like we had always dreamed. They were wonderful parents.”

When Carr-Tabb graduated high school, there was no doubt where she was going to pursue her degree. She had received scholarship offers to other schools, but after all the years she spent as a little girl watching cars pass on Highway 12, she knew she’d never go anywhere but Mississippi State.

She enrolled at MSU and officially joined the Bulldog family. Like her elder sister Aurora Carr Baugh (’84), Carr-Tabb also chose to study communications. One of her favorite memories from her undergraduate year was traveling to her first away game—an experience with which she is now well accustomed.

“I never dreamed I would be able to travel to a game. I was just grateful to be able to go to school. My friends and I always heard about the big rival game State played against Ole Miss in Jackson, so when we finally had a chance to go, we took it,” she said. “To be able to go to Jackson and watch MSU beat Ole Miss— I can’t even describe the atmosphere.

We still talk about that trip!” In addition to being her first time traveling to an away game, the trip brought another “first” as Carr-Tabb and her friends made special purchases for the occasion.

“I had never owned a cowbell. I wasn’t sure if I could afford it because I was just trying to go to school, but we all splurged, and it was money well spent. We rang those bells all the way to Jackson and back,” said Carr-Tabb, who has substantially grown her cowbell collection over the years since.

Carr-Tabb graduated with her bachelor’s degree in communication in 1985, and later earned a master’s degree in health promotion. She began her career with the Shelby County Health Department, where she helped trace and minimize the spread of HIV/ AIDS through public health education and related outreach services. As her career progressed and she became more interested in public health issues, Carr-Tabb assumed similar progressive roles in Dallas, Texas, with the Dallas Urban League and later in Chicago, Illinois, with the Cook County Health Department.

She eventually returned home to work with the Mississippi Department of Health. Based in Oktibbeha County, she promoted health and safety across ten surrounding counties for more than 24 years. Carr-Tabb retired in 2020 as senior community health educator but continues her diligent service to the community through her ongoing volunteer efforts.

Over the years, she has been actively involved with more than 15 different community service organizations in Starkville and the surrounding areas. She has held executive positions for many, including the Starkville Lions Club, Starkville-MSU Multi Cultural Lions Club, the local American Red Cross chapter’s disaster preparedness team and the Greater Starkville Partnership’s Minority Task Force. The Partnership honored Carr-Tabb with the esteemed T.E. Veitch Community Service Award in 2017.

Her late husband Robert Tabb Sr. shared Carr-Tabb’s passion for helping others. As the oldest child in his family, Tabb went to work right out of high school to help take care of his younger siblings. Although he never had the chance to go to college, he worked hard and taught himself the skills needed to be successful.

Looking back on the difficult journey her husband faced without a college education and thinking about the sacrifices her parents endured to put three children through college, Carr-Tabb knew she would do whatever it took to help create opportunities for other students to further their education.

“I watched the financial struggles my parents faced as one, and then both of my older sisters were enrolled in college. I was afraid I might not be able to go because three children in school might be too much to afford, but they made it work,” said Carr-Tabb, remembering the worrisome feeling like it was yesterday.

She continued, “I always thought, if I can make a difference or make it easier on one person—it might not be much—but if I can help someone not have to worry about whether or not they can go to college, I will. I don’t want young people to hear the cowbells and the cheering, like my sisters and I did, and not be able to come here and be a part of this wonderful place.”

As a result, she created the Eileen Carr-Tabb Loyalty Scholarship at MSU in 2020. The scholarship benefits fulltime entering freshmen or community college transfer students and serves as a meaningful testament to the transformative support poured into her life and education by those she has loved.

An active member of the MSU Alumni Association and Black Alumni Advisory Council, Carr-Tabb has been giving back to the university for a decade. Her gifts have supported areas such as the Black Alumni Advisory Council Scholarship and the Access, Diversity and Inclusion Emergency Fund. Unsurprisingly, she also is a longtime supporter of Bulldog athletics.

“I love this university. I still get emotional about it because I know what it took to get me here,” she said. “My dad always said, ‘Make something out of yourselves. The only way you can do that is with an education. Houses, cars, clothes—they can be taken away from you, but the one thing that cannot be taken away from you is what you have in your head’.”

As a result of her parents’ dedication and the values they instilled in their children, Carr-Tabb is now one of five MSU alumni in her family—four of which are postgraduates. Her eldest sister, Shelia Carr Williams, and one niece are “honorary Bulldogs,” having graduated from Rust College in Holly Springs, but sharing their family’s love for MSU.

“It means so much to think of what came from the sacrifices my parents made to get me to State. And even more to think that there are now four people in my family with not just one, but two degrees from MSU,” she said.

Today, when Carr-Tabb takes her seat in the Scoreboard Club of Davis Wade Stadium to watch the Dawgs play, she thinks of how far she’s come from her childhood home on Vine Street. She also is reminded of an especially memorable game she attended with her father, who, despite working on campus most of his life, had never watched the Bulldogs play from a seat inside the stadium until that day.

The Scoreboard Club wasn’t built at the time, but Carr- Tabb had season tickets. As she guided her elderly father down to her seats on the 50-yard line near the field, he began to get emotional. Carr-Tabb will never forget the awe in her father’s expression when he asked, “You mean we get to sit down there by the field?”

The highlight of the game came when Carr-Tabb’s nephew, her father’s grandson and an MSU student at the time, walked onto the field to sing with the MSU choir. “He was so proud of us, and I was so happy to share that moment with him,” said Carr-Tabb.

Carr-Tabb’s husband passed away last December. As the only member of her family still residing in Starkville, she said it’s common for people to ask when she’s going to leave and move closer to family. But her response is the same as it has always been.

“Mississippi State is my home. I’m here by myself because of this doggone university, but I love it,” she laughed. “Living here, I get to still be involved and I enjoy going to everything MSU-related I can fit into my schedule.”

A season ticket holder for multiple Bulldog athletic teams, Carr-Tabb is a regular at football, women’s and men’s basketball, softball and baseball games, making a point to be at every home game and at least two away games each year. This year, she and her sisters are looking forward to traveling to the Egg Bowl together to cheer on their Dawgs.

“After all those years of dreaming about being a Bulldog, it seemed like a miracle for me to finally hear the cowbells ringing from inside the MSU football stadium,” said Carr-Tabb. “Now I get to hear those same cowbells in stadiums in other cities. It never gets old.”

STORY ADDIE MAYFIELD

PHOTOGRAPHY MEGAN BEAN/SUBMITTED