The funeral for Mississippi's 1st District Congressman Alan Nunnelee will be held Monday, February 9 at Calvary Baptist Church in Tupelo. the 56-year-old died Friday, at his home in Tupelo, from an inoperable brain tumor. The Congressman is being remembered as a man who worked hard for the people of Mississippi.
Before being elected for a third term to Congress last November, Alan Nunnelee served in the Mississippi Senate. His colleague Democratic Senator Hob Bryan of Amory served several years with him. He says he remember's the Congressman as a someone with a sense of fairness that worked to make the legislative process more transparent.
"Alan was a good hard working Senator," says Bryan. "He was honest. He was very committed to the process in the sense that we was committed to propriety and what was the proper way to handle things in the Senate. He was very concerned with operating the budget process in a more transparent manner and and in an open manner."
During his 15 years in the Mississippi Legislature, Nunnelee served as Chair of the Appropriations Committee. Sid Salter has been a long time columnist with the Clarion Ledger. He says Nunnelee was a fiscal conservative.
"It was a conservatism born of his own experience in the private sector, but I also think Alan understood that he represented a constituency that came from the poorest state in the union. That there were needs in Mississippi particularly in terms of infrastructure, highways, waterways, things of that nature."
State Auditor Stacey Pickering says he'll remember Nunnelee as always being a great friend.
"It is truly a tremendous loss today." says Pickering. "Alan was a great statesman, great friend, great father, great husband. He epitomized a statesman in every sense of the word. It truly is a great loss. It hurts but I'm glad that I got to know him. I got to serve with him and I got to watch him serve really all of Mississippi."
Nunnelee was diagnosed with a brain tumor in May of last year. He underwent treatment in June, but the cancer returned in December. Doctors determined it was inoperable. He is survived by his wife and three children.
