Pearl River College 1952 all state basketball player, Jean Pigott Bourne, held the record for the most points in a game (42) until All-American Antrice McGill netted 46 points in a 1989 game. Charez Silas tied Bourne's 42 points in 1990.

Bourne, and employee of the Marion County School System since 1955 was named PRC's top female student athlete in 1951, while scoring the most total points in a season, a record she held until the mid-70s. She and her twin sister, Jane Pigott Dillon of Tylertown, were instrumental in leading the 1951 Lady Wildcats to the state playoffs.

The Walthall County native and Foxworth resident, who attended Dexter High School, was PRC's 1951 homecoming queen. She was also runner-up Miss Pearl River College, a member of the PRC band, Glee Club and was named to the list of Outstanding Young Ladies of America.

She graduated with special honors from PRC in 1952 and then transferred to Southern Miss, where she was a member of the National Honor Society and Phi Delta Kappa National Honor Society.

She received her bachelor's degree in home economics and English from USM in 1955 and a master's degree in school administration and supervision in 1976 from William Carey College.  Bourne was a President's scholar at both USM and William Carey College.

From 1952 through 1955, she was employed by the Walthall County Schools as an elementary teacher.  In 1955 she was employed by the Marion County School System and has since served as an English instructor, basketball coach, curriculum supervisor, and AIM coordinator.

Bourne coached junior high first and after the consolidation of schools in Marion County she led West Marion to the Final Four in the State Tournament, involving all classifications, in 1960, '61 and '62.

Bourne ws named Outstanding Junior High School Teacher in America in 1972.  In 1980 she was named her school's Star Teacher, and award which was presented by the Mississippi Economic Council and the State Chamber of Commerce.

She is a member of the Marion County Education Association, Mississippi Association of Educators, National Education Association and Mississippi Association of Secondary School Principals.  She has served as consultant for Mississippi Educational Services and as chair and member of the Mississippi State Textbook Procurement Commission.

Bourne and her husband Billy, also a Marion County school administrator, have one son, Dr. Thomas Bourne, chair of the Dow Chemical Company, Research and Development Center in Baton Rouge.  The also have two grandchildren.