“It’s just so easy for me to talk about Ole Miss.”
Anna Ware Brown, the University of Mississippi’s 2023 homecoming queen, never imagined herself running for the position, much less winning the crown. But with an extroverted and bubbly personality and a passion for all things Ole Miss, you get the sense in speaking to her that perhaps this was meant to be.
Brown’s father is a pastor, so she moved around a lot in the earliest years of her life. Her family eventually landed in Vicksburg, Miss., a small city on the Mississippi River and the place she calls home. Brown has two older brothers who she described as her best friends. She attended St. Aloysius High School, which is part of Vicksburg Catholic Schools.
“I honestly think I had the best childhood,” she said.
Brown is a fourth-generation Ole Miss student. Her great-grandparents had to leave the university in 1942 because of World War II. As a legacy, she has always been surrounded by all things Ole Miss. Her brother, Ben Brown, was a redshirt freshman for the Ole Miss Football team in 2017. The following year, he started in every game, and she was there to cheer him on in Oxford and on the road.
“I started coming to all the football games. We were road Rebs from when I was a sophomore in high school. I got to see a lot of other SEC schools because we were traveling to all of these different schools to watch him play, and every single time I was just like, ‘This doesn’t even compare. This doesn’t even hold a candle to Ole Miss,’” she said.
Ole Miss is the only university to which Brown applied for admission. She never took an official tour — she didn’t need to.
“There was never really a question for me of where I wanted to go to school. I always knew where I wanted to go. I always knew that Ole Miss was the dream school,” she said.
Ware describes her time at Ole Miss as the best years of her life.
“Every single month, I feel like I have a new favorite memory,” she said. “I’ll be like, ‘This was the best weekend ever’ and then there will be another weekend and I’ll be like, ‘No, this was the best weekend ever,’ And I just keep saying it.”
A student in the School of Journalism and New Media, Brown chose to study integrated marketing communications because she felt the major matched her personality and skill sets. She is also an ambassador for the school. In the journalism school and in the IMC program, Brown describes finding herself grateful for the large community that she had never had, coming from a small high school.
“I’ve had such a great experience with it and I love it so much. I’ve made a lot of friends through that program — I couldn’t say enough good things,” she said.
Brady Wood, 2023 homecoming king, is also an IMC major. The two didn’t know each other prior to winning their respective titles, but Brown has relished the chance to make a new friend out of the election.
“It was such a sweet surprise gaining such a sweet friend out of this,” she said.
In addition to being an ambassador for the journalism school, Brown is also involved with the Big Event, Student Alumni Council and Chi Omega sorority.
Ware never saw herself running for homecoming queen, but her sorority encouraged her to go out for the position.
“I was extremely humbled. I couldn’t imagine a bigger honor than getting to represent the university,” she said. “When my sorority presented the idea to me and asked me if I would do it, it caught me off guard that people saw me in that light, because I really wasn’t expecting it. But I’m really glad that I did it. It was such a positive experience.”
Brown described the campaign process as a long, but fun two weeks. The process is one that she’s grateful for and could not have completed without the support of people like her campaign manager, junior international studies major Betsy Vise, her sorority sisters and everyone else in her life who supported her.
“Campaigns can be exhausting, but I feel like I was able to have such a positive experience with it because they really carried me through it,” she said. “I met people who I had never even seen before when I was out there campaigning, and they were just so uplifting and kind. It was really encouraging. I knew that no matter what happened, I would be grateful that I had done it.”
After the initial election, in which Brown clinched 29.19% of the vote in a pool of five candidates, the race moved into a runoff in which Brown won the crown with 53.6% of the vote.
As the class of 2024 moves closer to graduation, Brown shares the sentiment of many that she does not want to leave.
“I’m just surrounded by such an amazing community of the best people that I have ever met. And I’m really sad about leaving them in May,” she said. “But I’m really looking forward to the future and what’s to come.”
Brown plans to return to Oxford at any and every opportunity. As for where life will lead her after graduation, she is unsure — but she knows what she’s looking for.
“I’m not completely positive yet of exactly what I’ll be doing, but I know I want an adventure. I want something exciting,” she said. “I’m not exactly sure what the Lord has in store for me yet, but I know it’s going to be an adventure and I’m really excited to see what’s to come.”
