NATCHEZ, Miss. – City officials praised former mayor Butch Brown as “a Natchez giant” whose assertive style reaped major benefits for the city he loved and led for 12 years.
News of Brown’s death fittingly came Tuesday as current Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson and the Board of Aldermen were holding their regular meeting.
“We have lost a Natchez giant,” said Gibson, as he and aldermen paused for a moment of silence and to reminisce about the former mayor, whose three terms in office covered 1992 to 2000 and 2012 to 2016.
Brown, who would’ve turned 80 in June, has been in ill health since hobbled by a stroke in December 2015.
Alderman Billie Joe Frazier noted he’s known Brown for years going back to when Frazier was a Natchez police officer while Brown was mayor in the 1990s.
“He stepped on a lot of toes but he did a lot of good things,” Frazier said. “When it came to the city’s business, he was going to do the best for the city.”
Brown is credited with using his political and persuasive powers to attract millions of dollars in state and federal funds for various Natchez projects while mayor and also as executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation.
Gibson noted Brown’s list of accomplishments include the multimillion-dollar project to stabilize the eroding Natchez bluffs that imperiled the city. Natchez in the 1990s during Brown’s administration got about $26 million in federal funds for measures that include constructing the retaining wall now bracing the bluffs to ensure more land doesn’t slide away.
Natchez received the Most Livable Community Award given by the Mississippi Municipal League during his administration.
When campaigning for his return to the mayor’s office in 2012, Brown counted about $47 million in federal and state funds that went to Natchez infrastructure projects while he was previously mayor. He said he would again seek funds with “no stone left unturned” to ensure Natchez saw more improvements.
Brown defeated then-mayor Jake Middleton and former mayor Philip West in the 2012 election.
Soon after Brown began his third term, the Board of Aldermen borrowed $763,000 to buy the old pecan factory site on Broadway Street. It’s now the spacious tree-lined green space and concert venue along the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River
In the following four years, more streets were repaved for about $2 million, the city-owned train depot’s exterior on Broadway was renovated with about $1 million, the Colonnades at the Natchez Visitor Reception Center were rebuilt with more than $430,000, a $800,000 walking bridge was erected over Roth Hill Road and a $723,000 extension of the Natchez Trails history-reading walkway was completed on St. Catherine Street.
Also during Brown’s last term, the city’s garbage-collection service began providing households new jumbo garbage cans plus bins for picking up recycled trash never before done in Natchez.
However, the city was bedeviled by persistent accounting snafus and cash shortfalls. This knotted up the board occasionally with 3-3 votes that required Brown to break the ties just to pay bills and city employees. Aldermen also had to borrow money from the bank and dip into the city’s reserve fund to make these payments.
Revenues from Magnolia Bluffs Casino on city-owned land that opened December 2012 provided an essential safety net to keep the city from falling deeper into a financial morass.
With hopes to get better financial managers at City Hall, Brown and aldermen in 2014 decided to make the city clerk an appointed position rather than one held by someone elected by voters.
Brown advocated for the city to annex outlying areas – such as the Beau Pre community – to bring in more people and increase Natchez’ tax base. That’s been rebuffed by the board.
He enthusiastically promoted the Natchez Tricentennial, the year-long celebration in 2016 of the city being founded by French settlers in 1716.
While Brown was mayor in 2015, the city issued a formal apology to Natchez civil rights protesters arrested and abused in 1965 when unjustly sent to Parchman state prison. About 300 or so activists were temporarily imprisoned. In acknowledging the “Parchman Ordeal,” the Board of Aldermen voted for a resolution apologizing to Blacks “who suffered these injustices.”
Also in Brown’s last months as mayor, the Natchez Convention Promotion Commission battled with then-tourism director Kevin Kirby in a spending dispute. Brown and aldermen opted to oust Kirby and all six commission members to be replaced by new appointees.
Brown filed to run for re-election in 2016 for a fourth term, but he dropped out as he was still recovering from his stroke. Darryl Grennell was elected to succeed Brown as mayor.
In his final meeting with the Board of Aldermen in June 2016, Brown said aldermen should consider raising taxes to help pay to upgrade the city’s aging water system and improve other city services.
“Taxes are not a bad thing,” Brown said. “We cannot continue to provide services to the citizens of Natchez without additional funds.”
The Board of Aldermen did eventually increase property taxes in 2017 and water charges in 2022.
Brown was a businessman when first elected mayor in 1992, unseating incumbent David Armstrong. He was re-elected in 1996, but his bid for a third term as mayor in 2000 was spoiled by challenger Hank Smith.
Brown in 2001 was appointed executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation. He worked there until 2011, when the state Transportation Commission forced him out four months before his already planned retirement.
While MDOT’s executive director, Brown was a key administrator for rebuilding the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s transportation infrastructure devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He served as president of the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials and the Southeastern Association of State Transportation Officials.
Adams County Supervisor Ricky Gray, who was a city alderman when Brown was in his third term as mayor, said “He was the best mayor I ever served with.”
Gray noted Brown kept Natchez in mind for road improvements while he oversaw the state Department of Transportation. “He did more for Natchez as MDOT director than he could have as mayor,” he said.
Larry L. “Butch” Brown was born June 10, 1943. He graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with degrees in management and marketing. He served as a marketing and management instructor at USM’s Natchez branch.
In addition to his stints as mayor and MDOT director, he was chairman of the Mississippi-Louisiana Bridge Authority, responsible for funding construction of the second Natchez-Vidalia bridge crossing the Mississippi River.
He was married to Shields Godfrey Brown and the father of three: Larry Jr., Sessions and Caroline. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Natchez.
Gibson and the five aldermen adjourned their meeting Tuesday in memory of Brown and former Adams County sheriff Tommy Ferrell, whose death was also announced during the meeting. This comes a month after Natchez Alderman Dan Dillard died, just hours after the board’s March 28 meeting.
Photo credit to WAPT
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