  {"id":2748,"date":"2026-01-08T17:54:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/?p=2748"},"modified":"2026-04-30T23:27:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T04:27:45","slug":"from-chairman-stephen-b-smith-mtsu-expresses-sympathy-on-passing-of-first-lady-elizabeth-mcphee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/from-chairman-stephen-b-smith-mtsu-expresses-sympathy-on-passing-of-first-lady-elizabeth-mcphee\/","title":{"rendered":"From Chairman Stephen B. Smith: MTSU expresses sympathy on passing of First Lady Elizabeth McPhee"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>\n<p>To the University community,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is with great sorrow that I convey news of the passing today of Elizabeth McPhee, the First Lady of Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ. Mrs. McPhee was beloved by our University community. Her devotion to MTSU over the last quarter-century, combined with her career as an educator and her tremendous impact as a volunteer for numerous charitable causes, enhanced the lives of thousands in our city, state, and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On behalf of all Blue Raiders, I extend our deepest condolences to her spouse of 45 years, MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee; their son, Sidney-Anthony McPhee; their daughter, Seneca Ann McPhee; and the McPhee family. Over the next several days, we at MTSU will share many thoughts, reflections, and expressions of appreciation for Mrs. McPhee&#8217;s life and service, as well as information about arrangements once they become available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In deepest sympathy,<br>Stephen B. Smith<br>Chairman, MTSU Board of Trustees<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2026\/01\/Liz-McPhee-Main-Photo-2013-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"Elizabeth McPhee, former First Lady of Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ, riding in a car during a Homecoming parade\" class=\"wp-image-2752\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2026\/01\/Liz-McPhee-Main-Photo-2013-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2026\/01\/Liz-McPhee-Main-Photo-2013-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2026\/01\/Liz-McPhee-Main-Photo-2013-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2026\/01\/Liz-McPhee-Main-Photo-2013-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2026\/01\/Liz-McPhee-Main-Photo-2013-2048x1363.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To the University community, It is with great sorrow that I convey news of the passing today of Elizabeth McPhee, the First Lady of Âé¶¹ÊÓÆµ. Mrs. McPhee was beloved by our University community. Her devotion to MTSU over the last quarter-century, combined with her career as an educator and her tremendous impact [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":2752,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2748"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3029,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2748\/revisions\/3029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}