Are there cigars in heaven?
There probably are now.
It’s hard to imagine Bill “Doc” Canon, who passed away this weekend at age 87, without the stub of a cigar clenched in his jaw as he went about his business.
“You hardly ever saw him without that cigar,” said Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant, who had known Canon since he was just a kid. “He was just a prince of a fellow and a gentleman, just an all-around great guy. When he first ran for Senate, I made yard signs for him and so on. We go way back.”
Canon grew up in Vaiden, but after studying veterinary medicine first at Mississippi State, then at Auburn, he set up practice in Columbus, where he specialized in treating livestock.
An independent voice
Canon entered state politics in 1976, winning a seat in the Mississippi House as a Democrat. He served just one term in the House, however, before running for state Senate.
Rep. Jeff Smith, who had known Canon since the mid-1960s, said the reason for the change was simple.
“(Canon) told me he was going to run for the Senate because he wasn’t one of Buddy’s boys and he would never be able to do anything in the House because of that,” Smith said.
The “Buddy” Canon referred to was Buddy Newman, the long-time speaker of the House who ran the chamber with an iron fist. Meekly taking orders wasn’t Canon’s style, said Sen. Hob Bryan of Amory, who served alongside Canon for 20 years in the Senate.
“Bill was in the Senate back when people made up their own minds,” Bryan said. “It’s not that he was opposed to the leadership, but he wasn’t hesitant to raise issues that weren’t necessarily ‘with the program.’ He was a good independent voice in the Senate.”
Canon served in the Senate from 1980 until 2003.
Highway legacy
Smith said Canon was noted for his dry sense of humor. That was evidenced in 1993 when Canon switched to the Republican Party.
“He kept complaining that he never got the Cadillac he was promised after he changed parties,” Bryan said.
His sense of humor was never mistaken for a lack of commitment, however.
Smith said Canon took his work in Jackson very seriously.
“He almost never missed a session,” Smith said. “His record of attendance is legendary. He was always there. That sounds silly, but members of the Legislature miss a lot, because of jobs or whatever. Not Dr. Canon. He never missed.”
Probably the most important legislation Canon worked on was the 1987 Highway Program, an aggressive project to build four-lane highways throughout the state funded by a 5-cent per gallon increase in the state’s fuel tax.
Prior to then, excluding federal interstate highways, there were just two major four-lane highways in the state. As a result of the Legislature’s $1.3 billion highway program, the state built more than 1,000 miles of four-lane highway statewide.
Smith said Canon’s work in promoting the plan marked a major change in how the state managed its highways.
“There was no system prior to 1987,” Smith said. “The highway commissioners back then came to the Legislature, and if you were from the northern district, or central district, or southern district, they came to you and tried to get enough votes to do a highway in their sector. What ’87 did was put aside all the sectionalism.”
‘He’ll be missed’
Canon left the Senate after the 2003 session, but ran again for his old District 17 Senate seat in November 2014 in a special election to fill the unexpired term of Terry Brown, who had died that spring.
Canon did not advance to the run-off in the four-candidate race, however. The seat went to Chuck Younger, now in his first full term in the Senate after being reelected in November 2015.
Younger, who has spent his life as a rancher, had known Canon both as a veterinarian and a legislator. Younger said Canon was proven to be a good example to follow in Jackson.
“Dr. Canon was a caring man who helped out the less fortunate folks,” Younger said. “He was a good man. He’ll be missed.”
And, of course, Younger will remember that ever-present cigar.
“I can remember watching him deliver a calf for my dad with a cigar in his mouth. I know why now. It took the smell of the cow away.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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