MOOREVILLE — Former Mississippi Highway Commissioner Bobby G. Richardson has died after a yearlong bout with lung cancer.
Richardson was commissioner for the northern third of the state from 1976 to 1984. The 81-year-old died Tuesday at his home in Mooreville.
Services are 11 a.m. Friday at Holland Funeral Directors in Tupelo.
Richardson earned a civil engineering degree from Mississippi State University. As a commissioner, he did work leading to the 1987 Highway Program that expanded access to four-lane roads.
Richardson was elected as a Democrat but switched parties and lost a 1982 Republican primary for U.S. Senate to Haley Barbour of Yazoo City. Barbour lost the Senate race to Democratic incumbent John C. Stennis, but was elected governor in 2003.
Richardson’s survivors include his wife, Mae, a son and a daughter.
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