Posted on 09/10/2004 6:59:29 PM PDT by RKB-AFG
Hundreds pay respects to Fordice at state capitol September 10, 2004 Daily Journal
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
The Associated Press
JACKSON - Some of the same Highway Patrolmen who guarded Kirk Fordice as governor carried his coffin into the Capitol on Thursday before a public visitation.
"He was a good boss. Direct," recalled Maj. Benjamin Young, who served five years on the security detail. Young paused and smiled. "He let you do your job. He also praised us when we did well."
Fordice's family, led by his ex-wife Pat, followed the casket and watched as it was set up on the second floor, just below the governor's office and only a few steps from where the Republican took his oath of office in 1992 and 1996. The casket was draped by an American flag that had flown over the state Capitol.
Pat Fordice and several children and grandchildren posed for a picture by the casket before hugging a few mourners and leaving the Capitol.
A private visitation was held later Thursday at a nearby funeral home. The funeral is today at First Baptist Church of Jackson, and burial will be in Madison County.
About 1,000 people passed through the Capitol rotunda to pay their respects, officials said. Separated from the casket by maroon velvet ropes, some people stopped to pray or cross themselves.
Many paused to look at Fordice family photos and other memorabilia, including a get-well card to "Chief" from his grandchildren and the former governor's leather cowboy boots adorned with his initials and the Mississippi flag.
Current Gov. Haley Barbour, a fellow Republican, choked up at the sight of the empty boots. Barbour said he last spoke to Fordice about two weeks ago. "He still had on his mind finding the next medicine" to fight the leukemia, Barbour said.
Mary Hester of Jackson was the first member of the public in line Thursday morning. She said voted for Fordice twice and she used to see him walk his dog, Lance, around downtown Jackson.
"I thought he was a true man, a strong man," said Hester, 69, who types prayers into computers at First Baptist Church in Jackson. "I think he spoke his mind and the truth, and we haven't seen a governor as strong in many years. There just wasn't anything phony about him."
Fordice served as governor from January 1992 to January 2000. He died Tuesday of complications of leukemia. He was 70.
Several legislators and other elected officials attended the public visitation, including former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove.
Musgrove, a Democrat, served as lieutenant governor during Fordice's second term and then succeeded Fordice in the state's top job. He said he called Fordice last week to wish him well.
"He could just whisper," Musgrove said. "I could tell, even in his weakened voice, the sense of shared responsibility in our positions and his looking forward to the future of the state of Mississippi."
Fordice was a Vicksburg construction company executive and longtime Republican Party insider when he first ran for governor in 1991. The blunt-spoken conservative defeated an incumbent governor, Democrat Ray Mabus.
The last time a governor's casket was made available for public viewing in the Capitol was in 1965 after the death of Hugh White, according to the state Department of Archives and History.
In October 2002, the casket of former Mississippi House Speaker C.B. "Buddie" Newman was displayed in the Capitol rotunda.
After the April 1995 death of former U.S. Sen. John Stennis, D-Miss., Stennis' flag-draped coffin was on view at the Old Capitol Museum in downtown Jackson.
Former Gov. J.P. Coleman's casket was displayed at the Old Capitol after his death in September 1991.
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