By Mark H. Stowers
Her late father placed a golf club in her hands almost as soon as she could hold one, setting in motion a lifelong love for the game. Growing up in Greenwood, Cissye Meeks Gallagher found in golf a passion that would carry her from the Mississippi Delta to Baton Rouge—and across the United States and beyond—filling trophy cabinets and shaping a remarkable journey along the way.
“Golf has been a part of my family for as long as I can remember. I was really young when my dad (Ed Meeks) put a club in my hand. He was a good player and also a Mississippi State Amateur Champion. Cissye says, “one of my first memories is making my first par and telling my dad about it after he came home from work. He was so proud of me and said, Let’s go back out there and see how you did it! That same afternoon I did it again. I’ll never forget it.”
At thirteen, Cissye won the Mississippi State Girls Junior Championship for the first time, a win that quickly opened doors.“That victory earned me an invitation to the U.S. Junior Girls,” she recalls. “I also won the Gulf States PGA Junior section the next year at fourteen, and that win gave me an exemption into the National PGA Junior Championship. All of that really catapulted me into competing in events I wouldn’t have had the chance to play in for several more years. I was probably younger than I was ready for, but it was great experience and a lot of fun.”
She continued to play in national girl events but at home over the next few summers, she had to take on the boys—especially her older brother, Keasler, and his friends, “but they were great and always let me play.”
Cissye went on to compete for the Pillow Academy boys’ team before accepting a scholarship to Louisiana State University, where she competed in four SEC championships and three NCAA championships. Recruited by several top SEC programs as early as age thirteen, her path to collegiate golf was already well underway long before she arrived in Baton Rouge.
Draped in purple and gold, she helped lead the Tigers to eight team titles. “I really loved LSU and Baton Rouge,” she says, “and I still have so many wonderful friends there.”
After college, Gallagher qualified for the LPGA Tour and played professionally for a year before an injury forced her into early retirement. She later applied to have her amateur status reinstated—a process that took three years before she was able to compete again. Since then, she has won twelve Mississippi State Amateur Championships, the most of any golfer in history, male or female. All the while, she was raising four children, including daughters Mary Langdon and Kathleen, who have each claimed two State Amateur titles of their own and went on to play collegiate golf at Mississippi State and LSU, respectively.
Her husband, Jim Gallagher, is also a professional golfer—a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, a 1993 Ryder Cup Hero, and now a golf commentator for the Golf Channel. The two met through his sister, Jackie, who was Cissye’s teammate at LSU. Cissye recalls, “Jim was already out on the PGA Tour, and I always thought I would try the LPGA until I injured my shoulder. My mom was already sick with cancer, and there was a lot to navigate during our first year of marriage—but somehow, we survived.”
The Gallaghers eventually settled in Greenwood, where they raised their four children—Mary Langdon, Thomas, Kathleen, and Elizabeth—and now enjoy life as grandparents to eight grandchildren.
These days, Cissye still competes with her friends and plays quite often. Cissye’s amateur résumé is as remarkable for its longevity as it is for its victories. She has claimed twelve Women’s State Amateur titles—her first at age nineteen and her twelfth in 2015 (1986–88, 1993–94, 1997–99, 2001, 2004, 2006, and 2015)—along with two Mississippi Girls Junior Amateur titles and a Senior Women’s Amateur title in 2017. She has also represented Mississippi in five USGA Women’s State Team Championships. Spanning more than four decades of competition, her women’s state amateur championships reflect a career defined by endurance and excellence, and she continues to compete at both the state and national levels.
In August 2019, she was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. “I was just humbled, amazed and really thankful. It was such a neat thing to happen,” she said. “So many sweet friends and family from Greenwood came to celebrate.”
Looking back over her career and all the tournaments she’s been a part of, the moments that stand out most are the family times. “Taking our family on the road and supporting Jim’s career was such a joy for all of us,” she recalls. “We traveled together to most PGA Tour events, as well as the Masters, the U.S. Opens, PGA Championships, and the British Opens. It was truly an unforgettable experience for our family. I loved it and was such a fan.”
She fondly shares one particularly special memory. “When I look back, my all-time favorite memory of playing myself might be the summer of 2015. I won my last state amateur, and both of my girls were in the field with me. They were so proud, and competing alongside them was incredibly special. They beat me most of the time,” she adds with a laugh.
And now the family legacy is passing to the next generation.
“Watching my son and daughter win a state high school championship was just as meaningful. I loved watching Jim and the kids play as much as I loved playing myself. And this summer, I caddied for my grandchildren! It feels like I’ve come full circle.”
