JACKSON — In the final months of his life, fighting a losing battle against the effects of brain cancer and a stroke, Republican U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee of Mississippi said he drew strength from a Bible verse about giving thanks to God in all circumstances.
“I am glad the Scripture in Thessalonians does not say to give thanks for all circumstances because I would have a difficult time being thankful for a tumor or a stroke, much less both,” he told supporters in an email last August. “I have learned the way to approach the difficulty of stroke rehabilitation is to give thanks in all circumstances.”
Nunnelee was 56 when he died Friday at his home in Tupelo, less than two weeks after being released from a local hospital and into hospice care.
A fiscal and social conservative, Nunnelee, who attended Caldwell High School in Columbus, was elected to Congress in a Republican wave of 2010 and became a member of the Appropriations Committee. He had already served 15 years in the Mississippi Senate, where he often set aside partisan differences to build friendships that lasted for years.
President Barack Obama was among those expressing condolences to Nunnelee’s family.
One of Nunnelee’s classmates at Caldwell High School was Rex Gillis, president of Dutch Oil.
“Alan was always the good guy,” Gillis said. “The rest of us would goof off and get into trouble, but he was good.
“In high school, I didn’t think he would go into politics, but when he did he didn’t change. He always had a servants heart.”
Gillis and Nunnelee went their separate ways after high school, but reconnected when Nunnelee became a Mississippi state senator. Gillis’ oldest daughter, Amy, was Nunnelee’s first page.
“He was a gentle man, and he always placed others before himself,” Gillis said.
Keith Heard, Sen. Thad Cochran’s chief of staff, said Mississippi not only lost a good congressman in Nunnelee, but a good man in general.
A Columbus resident, Heard said he first met Nunnelee when they were students at Mississippi State University. Heard said he came to know Nunnelee and his family even better when Nunnelee served in the state Senate, and they remained in contact once Nunnelee went to Washington.
“Alan had the heart of a servant,” Heard said. “He took issues seriously, but he broke them down to how they affected individuals. He was a man of faith and that reflected in his work.
“You could tell when you first met him that he was sincere, he cared about people and he wanted to do the right thing,” Heard added. “It’s really hard to see someone who has done so much, and had so much potential, be taken away. It’s a great loss for Mississippi, and I’m sure a terrible loss for his family. I’ll miss him.”
Republican Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said Nunnelee was like a brother: “He was the best man I’ve ever known.” Bryant will set a special election later this year to fill the vacancy created by Nunnelee’s death.
In addition to chemotherapy and radiation, Nunnelee underwent physical therapy and speech therapy last year to try to recover from the stroke that he had while surgeons were removing a brain tumor.
In late December, Nunnelee was hospitalized in Tupelo for treatment of a bleeding problem in his left leg. He was too ill to go to Washington in January to be sworn in for his third two-year term, so House leaders let him take his oath from a federal judge in Mississippi. Nunnelee took the oath in the hospital, joined by a small group that included his wife, Tori. Nunnelee was released from the hospital Jan. 26 and sent home under hospice care.
Nunnelee had overcome health challenges in the past. He was nearly blind in college because of keratoconus, a degenerative eye disease. He received a left cornea transplant in April 1980 and a right one in January 1982.
Nunnelee is survived by his wife, Tori, their three grown children and two grandchildren.
Dispatch reporters Zack Plair and Andrew Hazzard contributed to this story.
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