MARION, Ala. — Judson College has awarded the third annual Mary Whitfield “Whit” Lee Scholarship to Cera Jernigan of Fairhope for the current academic year.

“I’m grateful for this scholarship,” Jernigan said. “As late as a few days before I was to come to Judson last August I realized there weren’t enough funds to pay for my tuition. This scholarship was given at just the right time to make it happen for me.”

Jernigan, who said that her brother suggested the unusual spelling of her name because he liked the dinosaur, Triceratops, is the granddaughter of Peggy Jernigan.

“My mother died when I was 10,” Jernigan said, “and my grandmother adopted my brother and me.”

Jernigan is a graduate of Fairhope High School where she was in the marching band, the National Honor Society and the Spanish Club. She is a member of the Crossroads Church at Belforest in Daphne and is an elementary education major at Judson.

Mary Whitfield Lee, for whom the scholarship was named, was an outstanding Perry County student and athlete. She died on August 8, 1976 just a few days after a driver lost control of her vehicle outside Birmingham and slammed into the station wagon carrying Lee and other Judson College softball players to a tournament in north Alabama.