Guy Hunt, former Governor of Alabama -- Rest in Peace

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Subject:

Guy Hunt, former Governor of Alabama

Author:
Bama Sue

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Date Posted: January 31, 2009 6:27:55 EDT

Guy Hunt, 75, who in 1987 became Alabama's first Republican governor since Reconstruction but six years later became the state's first chief executive removed from office for a criminal conviction, died Friday at Trinity Medical Center in Birmingham, Ala. He had cancer and was frail from gallbladder surgery in late November.

A former farmer, Primitive Baptist preacher and Amway salesman, Hunt was dismissed as a country bumpkin by many when he ran for governor in 1986. But internal feuding within the Democratic Party ranks gave Hunt the election with 56% of the vote.

He became the first Republican elected governor since 1872. He was credited with ending decades of Democratic Party dominance by filling enough committees, boards and other offices with GOP members.

He was reelected in 1990, but halfway through his second term he was convicted of violating the state ethics law for taking $200,000 from his 1987 inaugural funds and converting it for personal use. He was fined, sentenced to five years of probation and, as a convicted felon, forced to give up his elected office.

He was later pardoned but could never restart his political career.

Harold Guy Hunt was born in Holly Pond in Cullman County, Ala., on June 17, 1933. He served in the Army during the Korean War.

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