Kirk Fordice

Kirk Fordice
61st Governor of Mississippi
In office January 14, 1992 – January 11, 2000
Lieutenant(s)	Eddie Briggs (1992-1996) Ronnie Musgrove (1996-2000)
Preceded by	Ray Mabus
Succeeded by	Ronnie Musgrove
Born	February 10 1934(1934--) Memphis, Tennessee
Died	September 7 2004 (aged 70) Jackson, Mississippi
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Pat Fordice (divorced)
Profession	Soldier, Businessman

Daniel Kirkwood "Kirk" Fordice, Jr. (February 10, 1934 – September 7, 2004) was a politician from the U.S. state of Mississippi. He was the Governor of Mississippi from 1992 until 2000.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Fordice studied engineering at Purdue University, earning a BS and MS in 1956 and 1957, respectively. After graduation he served with the United States Army as an engineer officer in the 1st Infantry Division for two years. He remained in the Army Reserve until 1977, retiring with the rank of colonel.

Fordice settled in Vicksburg and began a career in heavy construction. He won the governorship of Mississippi in the 1991 election, first winning the Republican primary against former state auditor Pete Johnson and in the general election against Democratic incumbent Ray Mabus, making him the first Republican to be elected governor since Reconstruction era governor Adelbert Ames, who served from 1874 to 1876.

Fordice successfully won re-election in 1995 against Democratic Mississippi secretary of state Dick Molpus. An outspoken conservative, Fordice advocated tax cuts, the abolishment of race quotas, reductions in the welfare system, capital punishment, tougher prison conditions and the building of more prison cells. However, Fordice often became an issue himself. Among the bluntest of modern American politicians, he offended blacks by refusing to apologize for Mississippi's violent history, as well as for vowing to call out the National Guard rather than enforce a court order to spend more money on the state's three historically black universities. Fordice also alarmed Jewish groups such as B'nai B'rith by referring to America as "a Christian Nation" during a Republican governors conference. South Carolina governor Carroll Campbell quickly offered a correction, adding Judeo as a prefix to Christian, but Fordice snapped back he meant what he said. Fordice later apologized for any offense.

In 1996, Fordice signed an executive order banning recognition of same-sex marriages in Mississippi.[1] Lawmakers said then that they would back up the executive order with a law. In 2004, Mississippi voters passed a constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman and further banning recognition of same-sex marriages from other states and countries.[2]

Fordice said he would have quit his position of Governor while still in office, except that he didn't want to give Democratic candidate Ronnie Musgrove any spot-light time of running the state before the actual election^[1].

Fordice's tenure was also roiled by rumors of an extramarital affair, which later led to his divorce from Pat Fordice.

After retiring, Fordice settled in Madison, Mississippi. He died of leukemia in Jackson at the age of 70. He is buried at Parkway Memorial Cemetery in Ridgeland, Mississippi.

References

1. ^ The New York Times: POLITICAL BRIEFING; Now, a New Episode Of the Fordice Saga

• The Associated Press. "Kirk Fordice, 70, Former Governor of Mississippi." The New York Times. September 8, 2004.
• Edsall, Thomas B. "Miss. Governor Ending Historic Tenure," The Washington Post, February 27, 1999; Page L1
• Sansing, David G. "Kirk Fordice," Mississippi History Now

External links

• Photo

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