Martha Love Mansell Bradley of Greenville, Mississippi, died on October 15, 2025. She was born on July 21, 1938 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, to Martha Carnathan Mansell and Morris Alexander Mansell. She was married to William Elmo Bradley on October 5, 1956. After living in Houston for a few years they returned to the Delta and lived the rest of their lives in Greenville, until Mrs. Bradley, wanting to be closer to family, moved to the Jackson area in 2019.
It is all but impossible to overstate Mrs. Bradley’s role in Greenville community life. From Jackson to Memphis she is remembered as a quintessential Delta woman. From 1966 to 1972 she served the Greenville Junior Auxiliary as the corresponding secretary and chair of the first antique show and sale. In 2008, the Junior Auxiliary named her Queen of its charity ball. She served as a member of the Washington School board of trustees, executive board of the Kings Daughters and Sons (Circle #2), the Mississippi Museum of Art’s gallery guild, and the Greenville Arts Council board. Along with her two daughters and the Greenville Arts Council, she sponsored the Bradley Nutcracker Party for the children of Greenville in memory of her late husband, and displayed his large collection of Steinbach Nutcrackers.
A longtime member of the First Presbyterian Church of Greenville, she was president of the women of the church, director of vacation bible school, circle leader, and chair of the flower committee. In her later years she joined St. James Episcopal Church as a member of the altar guild, chair of the flower guild, and as a lay eucharist minister. After moving to Madison, she continued her faith under the Episcopal diocese and became a member of the Cathedral Church of St. Andrew in Jackson where she enjoyed the Wednesday Lunch Bunch bible study.
Her garden’s reputation often preceded her. She was a member of the Little Greenville Garden Club and the Junior Greenville Garden Club, as well as president of the Greenville Garden Club. Beyond local chapter participation, Mrs. Bradley was committed to the Garden Club of America: as its Zone IX representative to the national committees on visiting gardens, the bulletin, the founders fund, awards, and admissions. In April 2007, she was awarded the Alice Kain Stout Mentoring Award in San Antonio, Texas. In May 2006, she received the Garden Club of America Medal of Merit, the highest honor given to a club member, and in 2014 her garden was accepted in the Garden Club of America’s Collection of Archives of American Gardens at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C.
She was predeceased by her husband and her parents. She is survived by her daughters, Kate Bradley Spencer and Betsy Bradley Langford, son-in-law Robert Langford, sister Carnie Mansell Wall (Keith Wall) and five grandchildren: Courtney Elizabeth Bledsoe (Calron Washington), Robert Eugene Bledsoe III (Ai Doan), Bradley Clayton Bledsoe (Amanda Smith), Martha Love Langford and William Bradley Langford. To her neverending delight her grandchildren are tremendously dear to one another, as close as the best of siblings are, always in touch despite the distance between Mississippi, Tennessee, and Brooklyn, NY. The last few years blessed Mrs. Bradley with two great-grandchildren, Oona Love Isobel Bledsoe and Mara Mai Bledsoe.
Visitation will be held at St. James Episcopal Church at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, October 20, 2025, with the funeral service to follow at 11:00 a.m. Burial will be in the Greenville Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of Boone Funeral Home, Greenville.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Mississippi Museum of Art, 380 South Lamar Street, Jackson, MS 39201, Operation Shoestring, 1711 Bailey Avenue, Jackson, MS 39203; St. James Episcopal Church, 1024 South Washington Avenue, Greenville, MS 38702; or a charity of the donor’s choice.