[Deathwatch] Kirk Fordice, former Mississippi governor, 70

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Kirk Fordice, former Mississippi governor, dead at 70 of leukemia

Wednesday, September 8, 2004

JACKSON (AP) - Former Gov. Kirk Fordice, a staunch Republican who
idolized Ronald Reagan and led a campaign against wasteful spending and
career politicians during two terms, will lie in the rotunda of the
Capitol on Thursday for public viewing from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Friday at First Baptist Church in Jackson.
He is survived by a daughter and three sons.

The barrel-chested, hard-nosed Fordice, 70, served as governor from
1992-2000. He was the first Republican elected governor in more than
100 years and the first governor elected to two successive terms.

Fordice died of complications with leukemia on Tuesday at the
University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

The Purdue graduate and Memphis native lived in Vicksburg for 30 years
with his wife, Pat, before moving to the Governor's Mansion. They
reared their three sons and a daughter here. He left office in 2000 and
had been living in Madison.

Known for his candor and populist appeal, Fordice unseated incumbent
Gov. Ray Mabus in 1991 and then defeated then-Secretary of State Dick
Molpus for a second term in 1995.

He presided over a growing economy, bolstered by a casino-building boom
in Tunica, Vicksburg and the Gulf Coast. He opposed casinos and
appointed as the first Gaming Commission members people who established
and enforced strict rules, avoiding scandal.

"His toughness showed to the very end," said longtime friend Jim
Ingram, who served as head of the Highway Patrol during Fordice's two
terms.

"He was a man of integrity and he expected integrity and honesty from
those he appointed," Ingram said. "We discussed a lot of things, but he
was a very private person, and that many of us respected."

Gov. Haley Barbour, the second Republican elected to the state's
highest office, said Fordice focused the state's energies on economic
development.

"His frank, outspoken and unwavering style made him a respected figure
with his political opponents and a beloved governor by Mississippians
across the state who elected him twice," Barbour said in a statement.

Friends and associates say Fordice was the consummate alpha male his
eight years in office - loud, gruff and domineering.

"Frankly I don't miss being inside politics," Fordice said in a 2001
interview with The Associated Press. "It has often been called an ugly,
dirty game, and in many ways it is."

As a contractor, Fordice spent decades trying to tame the Mississippi
River. He was active in party politics but had never sought statewide
office before the 1991 governor's race, when he surprised pundits by
defeating state Auditor Pete Johnson in a primary runoff and Mabus in
the general election.

While in office, Fordice turned over full control of his Vicksburg
engineering firm to two of his sons.

One of his many political battles included the feud with former
Attorney General Mike Moore who in 1994 sued tobacco companies.
Mississippi was the first of dozens of states to seek repayment for
public costs of treating sick smokers.

Democrat Moore used a stable of private attorneys, including some of
his biggest contributors, to file the suit.

"Any idiot can see it's all about lawyers' fees," Fordice once groused.


He filed his own suit to try to block Moore's. That didn't work. Moore
negotiated a settlement with cigarette makers in 1999 that's bringing
the state billions of dollars.

Despite controversies over his comments on race and other issues and
his private life, the silver-haired grandfather only seemed to grow
more popular with conservative Mississippians even though his agenda of
tax cuts, school choice and term limits stalled in the
Democrat-controlled Legislature.

He was successful in pushing for spending restraints, tougher
sentencing laws and more prisons.

The Legislature agreed to a new law that limited spending to 98 percent
of revenues, putting the other 2 percent into a "rainy day" savings
account. Lawmakers also passed a law that required people convicted of
felonies to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence before they
could be considered for parole.

His private life made headlines several times. In 1993, he revealed
that he was having "irreconcilable differences" with his wife of 40
years, Pat. The first lady, through a terse press release, said she had
no intention of getting a divorce.

Three years later, Fordice was seriously injured while driving back
from his native Memphis, Tenn., where restaurant employees had seen him
eating lunch and drinking wine with a woman believed to be Ann G.
Creson, his high school sweetheart from Memphis.

He later admitted Creson was his companion that day.

In 1999, he was caught on television returning home from a vacation to
France with Creson and cursed a television reporter. Days later, he
announced that he and his wife were divorcing. He married Creson
shortly after leaving office in January 2000, barred by term limits
from seeking a third term. They later divorced.

A statement released by Fordice's family said the governor had received
calls, letters and prayers from people across the state during his
illness.

"The people he served while in office served to lift his spirits during
his final days," the statement read.