CRESTVIEW — Residents joined local, county and state officials in an affectionate farewell to Navy veteran and former Mayor George Whitehurst Wednesday afternoon.
As firemen stood at attention, Whitehurst’s funeral procession passed beneath a giant American flag strung from Crestview Fire Department’s ladder truck and a truck from the North Bay Fire Department, which offered its services.
The Crestview Police Department Honor Guard flanked the Liveoak Park Memorial Cemetery driveway.
Residents James and Mary Harrison offered their respects at the cemetery to Crestview's longest serving mayor. Whitehurst, who died Sunday at age 88, served 24 years in office, from 1961-62, 1967-76 and 1995-2007.
“He was a good mayor,” James said. “He was a good man. Anything he could do for you to help you, he’d do it. There’s going to be a lot of people who’ll miss that man.”
“He was a good man” was a theme echoed by mourners including retired state senator Dr. Durell Peaden and the Rev. Bill McGraw, retired pastor of Pyron Chapel Baptist Church in Baker, who presided over the graveside service.
“A good name is not just something you choose for yourself,” McGraw said. “It’s something you earn by a lifetime of work. Everybody felt like (Whitehurst) was their special friend.”
Condolences came from as far away as Crestview’s sister city in France, where Dr. Marie-Thérèse Reed, a former vice president of the Noirmoutier Sister City Committee remembered Whitehurst as “a good friend to us and to our relationship with Crestview.”
Retired state law enforcement colonel Graham Fountain said Whitehurst was an old family friend, and that he worked with Whitehurst on several projects over the years.
“He was a classy guy,” Fountain said. “He would say, ‘I’m going to take care of it,’ and no matter what it was, he would.”
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Community says farewell to George Whitehurst, 'a good man' (PHOTOS, VIDEO)