NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Martha Rivers Ingram, the prominent businesswoman and philanthropist whose support helped shape Nashville’s arts and cultural community, died Thursday. She was 90.
Ingram died peacefully surrounded by her family.
Born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1935, Ingram attended Ashley Hall before earning a history degree from Vassar College in 1957. She later worked with her father at WCSC’s radio and television stations in Charleston and served as a disc jockey for a classical music program.
She married E. Bronson Ingram in 1958, and the couple moved to Nashville three years later. The city remained her home for the rest of her life.
Following her husband’s death in 1995, Ingram became chairman of Ingram Industries, one of the country’s largest privately held companies. She also served on the boards of Baxter International, Ingram Micro, Regions Financial Corporation and Weyerhaeuser Company.
Ingram was elected to Vanderbilt University’s Board of Trust in 1995 and served as its chair from 1999 to 2011. She was also a trustee of Vassar College, Ashley Hall and Harpeth Hall School.
In 1992, then-Gov. Ned McWherter appointed her to lead the Tennessee Bicentennial Commission, which oversaw the state’s 200th anniversary commemoration.
Ingram was widely known for her lifelong support of the arts and was called “the principal architect of Nashville’s cultural infrastructure.”
She served as board chair of The Advent Theater, Nashville’s first professional repertory company, and played a major role in developing the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in the 1970s. She also helped establish the Tennessee Repertory Theatre, now Nashville Repertory Theatre.
Ingram served on the boards of TPAC, Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera, the Nashville Symphony and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. She was also instrumental in building the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville and the Gaillard Center in Charleston.
The Martha Rivers Ingram Center for the Performing Arts at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music is named in her honor.
Her honors included a star on the Music City Walk of Fame, the Gold Medal in the Arts Award and South Carolina’s Order of the Palmetto. President Richard Nixon also appointed her to the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts for the John F. Kennedy Center.
Her name appears across several institutions she supported, including the Martha Rivers Ingram Garden Courtyard at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and the Martha Rivers Ingram Art Center at Ashley Hall. A bronze statue of Ingram stands outside Ingram Commons at Vanderbilt.
Outside of her professional and civic work, Ingram enjoyed fishing, boating, golf, tennis and traveling.
Ingram is survived by her four children, Orrin Henry Ingram II, John Rivers Ingram, David Bronson Ingram and Robin Bigelow Ingram Patton, along with several grandchildren and other family members.
Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Aug. 13 at St. George’s Episcopal Church. A funeral service will be held there at 10 a.m. Aug. 14, followed by a private graveside service.
In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations be made to Vanderbilt University or one of Ingram’s favorite arts organizations.
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