NATCHEZ, Miss. — The state Legislature has approved a bill to name Adams County bridges in honor of two county supervisors who served together in the 1950s through 1980s.
The bridge on Liberty Road crossing St. Catherine’s Creek is to be officially named the James Carter Memorial Bridge. The bridge on Hutchins Landing Road crossing Second Creek is to be named the Boyd Sojourner Memorial Bridge.
Carter and Sojourner served side-by-side on the Adams County Board of Supervisors for 28 years — and were close friends going back to childhood. Carter was on the county board from 1956 through 1987. Sojourner served from 1959 through 1987.
Sen. Melanie Sojourner, R-Natchez, the former supervisor’s granddaughter, introduced the bridge-naming legislation.
The two former county supervisors, now deceased, traced their friendship to when they grew up in Adams County’s Kingston community. “We’re like brothers,” Carter is quoted saying in a 1987 Natchez Democrat article provided by Sojourner’s granddaughter.
Carter was elected to replace his father on the county board when he died in office in 1956, according to the news article. Sojourner was elected in 1959 to join his friend on the board.
They both decided not to seek re-election in 1987 after being on Adams County’s governing board in the four decades they served. While supervisors, they were involved in the development of the Natchez-Adams Port facility on the Mississippi River, the upgrades of county byways — including Liberty Road and Highland Boulevard — and the construction of the county-owned Jefferson Davis Memorial Hospital, according to the article. The hospital built in 1960 is now the privately owned Merit Health medical center.
Sojourner died in 1999 at age 87. Carter died in 2004 at age 90.
The Carters and Sojourners have generations of politicians. Melanie Sojourner is a two-term state senator representing Adams County. Her grandfather’s father was also a state legislator. Carter’s father and grandfather were Adams County supervisors before him, and he was Natchez Alderman Sarah Carter Smith’s great-uncle.
The bill designating the Adams County bridges in honor of Carter and Sojourner instructs the state Department of Transportation to erect signs marking their names on the creek overpasses. Senate Bill 2002 passed the House of Representatives on Monday and the Senate today. The bill now goes to Gov. Tate Reeves for him to sign into law.
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