
(Photo provided by Cissye Gallager)
- Gallagher has never lost sight of the fact that her faith, family, and friends are what make her world go round.
Cissye Meeks Gallagher of Greenwood does not remember a time when she was not holding a golf club. She just knows the game has been a factor in every aspect of her life from the day her dad, Ed Meeks, also a state amateur champion, put a club in her hand.
Taking Cissye, her older brother, and younger sister with him to the golf course regularly meant Cissye’s mom never complained about being a “golf widow!” All three became avid lifelong enthusiasts.
The legendary golf champion won her first title at 13. She went on to claim 12 Ladies’ State Amateur titles — more than any golfer in history — before her induction into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 2019. At 58, she recently represented Mississippi in the 63rd United States Senior Amateur tourney in Hot Springs, West Virginia, along with 132 golfers from 13 countries.
When she was eliminated 2-1 in the match play Round of 64, she became caddy and chief cheerleader for Dawn Woodard of South Carolina, celebrating her friend’s eventual victory. It was so typical for Cissye to be “thrilled” to see someone else claim the title.
As serious a contender as Cissye is whenever and wherever she plays, she never loses sight of the fact that her faith, family, and friends are what make her world go round. Golf is just a fun extra in a very full life.
Her husband of 36 years, Jim Gallagher, a former Ryder Cup hero-turned-analyst on the Golf Channel, explains it this way. “Cissye has a gift. She’s a people person. She will do anything for anybody. She has a gift — an amazing personality that draws people to her.”
Mary “Cissye” Meeks graduated from Pillow Academy in 1984, where she was elected “Miss Pillow Academy” and Homecoming Queen. She played on the Boys Golf Team because there was no girls’ team, and she more than held her own there! Both LSU and Alabama offered her the opportunity to play on their teams as a freshman.
Cissye’s beloved mom, Linda, had been diagnosed with cancer several years earlier, and the prognosis for recovery was poor. Cissye chose LSU essentially because she could quickly get home to Greenwood or to Jackson to spend hospital time with her mother as often as possible.
And so it was that she spent many a “chemotherapy weekend” by her mom’s side during her college career. Despite the distraction of her mother’s illness, Cissye had a very successful tenure at LSU, where she played in three NCAA National Championships, participated in eight team titles, and finished 14th in the 1988 National Championship.
However, the most consequential result of choosing LSU as her school was that one of her teammates was Jackie Gallagher, the younger sister of Cissye’s future husband, Jim. He was six years older than Cissye, a graduate of the University of Tennessee, and just getting started on his professional career when they met.
Cissye describes a whirlwind courtship. Jim was traveling all the time. Between her collegiate schedule and her mother’s illness, her plate was full. She laughs today as she looks backward, saying, “I think we may have seen each other about ten times before we got married. I think about it now and wonder what we were thinking at the time!” And yet, when you know, you know. They knew!
They married in November 1990. Their first two years were, to say the least, unusual. They parked their belongings on the second floor of her parents’ Greenwood residence, adopting a “one day at a time” approach to life.
Jim had received his professional card. So had Cissye. While Jim was playing on the West Coast, she was beginning her first year on the Ladies PGA Tour in Florida. They passed like ships in the night.
“It wasn’t nearly as much fun as I thought it would be,” she says. “It wasn’t the same as college when you spent fun weekends on the road with your best friends. The timing was just not great. It was now a job to play. I felt like I needed to be at home with my mom in her last days, and I felt like I was supposed to be a wife, but I was out there trying to play in the LGPA. When Jim won his first big event, I was playing in a tournament somewhere else.”
And then, Cissye injured her shoulder. For the sunny-dispositioned, unsinkable, young woman, it was one of the few times in her life that she was utterly overwhelmed.
At that point, Cissye made a choice, and it wasn’t even hard. She reclaimed her amateur status, went home, and has never looked back.
“I have never been sorry for letting any of that go at the expense of getting to enjoy being a wife and a mother.”

Golf, however, has never been too far away. It simply moved off center stage. Rick Cleveland stated in a 2019 article on Cissye that she has continued to win golf tournaments over the last 30 years, even when she was “dabbling” in the sport. She has won during pregnancies, after long layoffs from a broken wrist, and another time when she slammed her thumb in the car door the day before a tournament, and she could not even use her right thumb in her grip.
The game has never been a matter of life and death in importance. Cissye says the impact of her mother’s illness during her growing-up years taught her much about life’s challenges. “When I line everything up against what that was like, golf is just not that big a deal.” Those difficult ten years left her with clear eyes when it comes to what matters most in life.
Cissye lives each day, reminding herself of James 4:14 that states, “Life is a vapor.” She takes nothing for granted but does seem to squeeze every drop of joy and meaning from everything her hand finds to do.
Recently, Cissye has tried her hand at oil painting “in an effort to reinvent myself now that my children are adults.” Or so she says. You can follow that budding career on Instagram at CissyeGallagherart. Her work is like she is — impressive, fresh, and happy!
The Gallaghers are parents to four adult children and grandparents to eight. Like their mom, daughters Mary Langdon and Kathleen were collegiate golfers, and each won the Ladies State Amateur title twice. They have become Cissye’s most significant competitors these days, occasionally playing against their mother for a title! Son, Thomas, is the Associate Director of Alpine Camp for Boys, where, no surprise, he also runs their golf program. The youngest daughter, Elizabeth, is recently married and works as a project manager for a Nashville Construction Company.
Eight grandchildren keep life interesting. Jim jokes that it now takes them three days to recover from a day of full-time grandparenting, but he is just as engaged in the process as Cissye is.
She reflects on this season of life. “I loved being a mother, but oh, how much I love being a grandmother. It is the sweetest. I have gotten to caddy for my two oldest grandsons a couple of times this year. Watching them play golf or watching them do anything is so much fun. Being with my children and watching them parent is all so beautiful.”
Life is good. Cissye would not trade places with anybody else on earth!