MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2011 1st Extraordinary Session

To: Rules

By: Senator(s) Wilemon, Hewes, Bryan

Senate Concurrent Resolution 520

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING THE PUBLIC SERVICE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF HOUSE SPEAKER BILLY MCCOY ON THE OCCASION OF HIS RETIREMENT.

     WHEREAS, House Speaker Billy McCoy of Rienzi, who has led the 122-member state House for 8 years, has announced that he will not seek reelection to District 3 of his beloved Mississippi House of Representatives.  This decision caps one of the most progressive tenures of any state House Speaker, an eight-year run in which the veteran lawmaker worked hard to protect critical issues that included public education funding, highways and a balanced state budget; and

     WHEREAS, when the 2012 Session of the Mississippi Legislature is sworn in, Speaker Billy McCoy's 32-year career as a member of that body will come to an end.  When combined with his father, Elmer McCoy's four-term period in the House, two generations of McCoys will have logged almost 50 years in the Mississippi Legislature; and

     WHEREAS, Speaker McCoy was born August 14, 1942, in Booneville, attended Northeast Mississippi Junior College, and graduated from Mississippi State University.  He has worked as a vocational agriculture teacher and as a Loan Officer for the Farmers Home Administration, as well as a school Auditor for the Mississippi State Department of Audit.  McCoy became a member of the House in 1980, and was elected Speaker in 2004; and

     WHEREAS, Representative Billy McCoy followed in his father's footsteps in being an advocate for public education, better roads and any number of programs that would improve the lives of hard-working men and women in Alcorn and Prentiss Counties, and indeed all over the State of Mississippi.  A few moments in Billy McCoy's presence makes it abundantly clear that he believes strongly that he was sent to Jackson to be vigilant in behalf of those who likely would never darken the door of the Mississippi Capitol.  He is one of the last of a dying breed of populist politicians who served for small financial reward and were determined to deliver on behalf of the working men and women of Mississippi.  Touring the Speaker's northeast Mississippi district is like a semester-long course in representative democracy.  Speaker McCoy knows who lives in every house on every road in his district.  He can go to any number of cemeteries adjacent to pristinely manicured brick and clapboard rural churches and point to the graves of citizens from rural Prentiss and Alcorn Counties who had to leave those verdant hills and hollows to serve in the military and who subsequently lost their lives in the process.  Those churches carrying names like Forked Oak, Little Brown and numerous others are truly hallowed ground.  Tours with Speaker McCoy inevitably wind their way past schools.  Public education, particularly in small towns and rural areas, is a source of great pride and of continuing concern to Billy McCoy.  It is clear that he believes that education is the one thing that gives rural Mississippians a chance at having more than they ever dreamed; and

     WHEREAS, previous Speakers Buddy Newman and Tim Ford placed Billy McCoy in legislative positions as Chairman of Education and Chairman of Ways & Means to help accomplish many beneficial things for Mississippi.  Creation of the Education Enhancement Fund is a lasting legacy to the contributions of the Speaker to public education; and

     WHEREAS, Speaker McCoy is married to the former Edith Leatherwood.  He is a Baptist, Freemason, and a member of the Farm Bureau.  He is a farmer and has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Northeast Mississippi Community College; and

     WHEREAS, the resolve of this representative of the people, the workingman's House Speaker, will be sorely missed by many:

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING THEREIN, That we do hereby recognize and salute the dedicated public service and beneficial accomplishments of House Speaker William J. "Billy" McCoy on the occasion of his retirement from the Mississippi House of Representatives, and extend our best wishes to him and his family as he returns to the beautiful foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That this resolution be presented to Speaker McCoy and made available to the Capitol Press Corps.