A special music-, food-, film- and fun-filled celebration July 14 honored the late Nashville Scene editor and acclaimed MTSU alumnus Jim Ridley and raised roughly $10,000 in funds for a memorial scholarship for young journalism hopefuls, organizers said.

MTSU College of Media and Entertainment Dean Ken Paulson, left, stands with David Chamberlain, an MTSU School of Journalism student and the first Jim Ridley Memorial Scholarship recipient, and Nashville Mayor Megan Barry for a photo at the July 14 celebration fundraiser in Nashville to benefit Ridley’s scholarship fund. (Photo by Eric England/The Nashville Scene)

“Siren 2: A Special Evening of Film and Music Celebrating Jim Ridley” was held at White Avenue Studio, located at 2517 White Ave. in Nashville’s Melrose neighborhood.

The evening featured rare 16mm film footage, a musical performance by Kurt Wagner of Lambchop, a silent auction, and special guests discussing Ridley’s impact on and legacy for the community, including Nashville Mayor Megan Barry.

All proceeds from the event went to the Jim Ridley Memorial Scholarship in the School of Journalism in MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment. With this event’s fundraising success, the Ridley scholarship is now permanently endowed, said Abby White, CME development director and event emcee.

MTSU added Ridley to the College of Media and Entertainment’s “Wall of Fame” in April 2015 and established a scholarship honoring him last fall, recognizing his enthusiasm for mentoring and hiring young writers. The inaugural Jim Ridley Scholarship winner, MTSU senior David Chamberlain of Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, attended the celebration and was commended by CME Dean Ken Paulson.

In a surprise presentation, Ridley’s widow, Alicia Adkerson, received a key to the city of Murfreesboro by City Councilman Rick LaLance. Also in attendance were Ridley and Adkerson’s young children, Katharine “Kat” Dillon Ridley and James A. “Jamie” Ridley VI.

MTSU alumna Alicia Adkerson, left, the widow of Nashville Scene editor Jim Ridley, and the couple’s children, Kat and Jamie Ridley, pose with the key to the city of Murfreesboro at the July 14 celebration fundraiser in Nashville to benefit the Jim Ridley Memorial Scholarship fund in the MTSU College of Media and Entertainment. (Photo by Eric England/The Nashville Scene)

Jim Ridley, 50, a Murfreesboro native who earned his MTSU journalism degree in 1989, was involved in the arts and his community from his youth, writing movie and book reviews for local newspapers by age 13. His talent led to a freelance film-reviewing job for the Nashville Scene and regular contributions to The Village Voice, L.A. Weekly, Variety and other publications.

The Scene brought Ridley on full-time in 1994, and he rose to the positions of senior editor and managing editor before he was named editor in 2009, earning national awards and using his platform most successfully throughout his career to urge community support for Nashville’s historic Belcourt Theatre.

Ridley died April 8, 2016, after suddenly falling ill in his office at the Scene. The community quickly moved to support his family — his wife and their young children; his brother, filmmaker Read Ridley, and their father, James “Jim” Ridley IV — and immersed them in praise and thanks for his many kindnesses and years of service to Nashville and to journalism.

The Belcourt named its newly expanded lobby for Ridley when it reopened last July 22 and paid tribute to him with a subsequent special series of some of his favorite films, “Jewels and Jim: Ridley’s Believe It or Not.”

For more information about or to donate to the Jim Ridley Memorial Scholarship Fund, visit this site or contact White at abby.white@mtsu.edu.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)

MTSU School of Journalism alumnus Jim Ridley (Class of 1985) accepts an award commemorating his addition to the College of Media and Entertainment’s Wall of Fame during an April 2015 ceremony in the university’s James Union Building. Ridley, the late editor of the Nashville Scene, was honored July 14 at a special memorial scholarship fundraising event in Nashville. (MTSU file photo by Andy Heidt)

Murfreesboro City Council member Rick LaLance, right, presents the key to the city of Murfreesboro to MTSU alumna Alicia Adkerson, widow of Nashville Scene editor Jim Ridley, at the July 14 celebration fundraiser in Nashville to benefit Ridley’s scholarship fund through the MTSU College of Media and Entertainment. (Photo by Eric England/The Nashville Scene)