Former state senator Leonard C. Dunavant died of cancer at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Methodist Hospital. He was 75.
The Millington Republican was remembered as a statesman whose service in the General Assembly and expertise in finance gave his minority party new clout.
Services for Dunavant will be at First United Methodist Church in Millington at 2 p.m. Thursday. Burial will be in Woodhaven Memory Gardens in Millington with Munford Funeral Home Millington Chapel in charge.
Serving as a Republican in a Democratic-controlled Senate, Dunavant earned bipartisan respect for his expertise in finance and service as vice chairman of the Senate Finance Ways and Means Committee.
In Nashville, Gov. Don Sundquist was notified of Dunavant's death after the governor's return from Lamar Alexander's presidential campaign kickoff in Maryville.
''I knew Leonard Dunavant for many years - as an individual, a family man, a statesman and a leader,'' Sundquist said. ''He was unselfish in all he did. The state has lost a good friend and I offer my condolences to his family.''
Dunavant's death came one day after Dr. V. Lane Rawlins, University of Memphis president, announced that the plaza in front of the university's new, $27 million library will be named in Dunavant's honor.
Rawlins praised Dunavant for his ''support of education and keen knowledge of fiscal issues'' and his ''key role'' in securing funds for the library.
Dunavant, a soft-spoken, quick-witted politician, served 14 years as a Millington alderman, six years in the state House of Representatives and 20 years in the state Senate before his defeat in 1992.
Campaigning for re-election in Covington in 1988 at age 68, Dunavant dryly noted that he wasn't the senior senator working the Tipton County Courthouse that day.
Dunavant and Rep. Ed Bryant (R-Tenn.), then a candidate for the Eighth District Congressional seat, had been joined by U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), then 85.
Throughout his career, Dunavant was unafraid to take often unpopular stands. He favored an income tax as a key element in state tax reform, opposed pari-mutuel betting and angered a lobbying group for doctors saying the state's Medicaid program paid them too much.
''If it comes down to it, I'd rather be responsible than be re-elected,'' he said in 1989 regarding a flat-rate income tax.
Such remarks led to defeat in August 1992 when the Tennessee Medical Association, a doctors' lobbying group, poured in almost $24,000 to help Bartlett schoolteacher Tom Leatherwood, also a Republican, win in Senate District 32 - made up of Tipton and Lauderdale counties and northern and part of eastern Shelby County.
After his defeat in the Republican primary, he accepted Gov. Ned McWherter's offer of a job as staff director of his Medicaid Reform Commission.
Although state law allowed Dunavant to keep his unused campaign funds for his personal use after his Senate defeat, he donated the money to the Salvation Army for its Florida hurricane relief effort. He sent $2,759.
Dunavant opposed gambling in 1987 when surveys showed many people favored lotteries, bingo and horse race betting.
''I owe them my time, my thoughts and total consideration, but ultimately I don't owe them my vote,'' he said.
Dunavant was elected to the state House in 1966 and faced only minor opposition while getting re-elected twice and then winning a Senate seat. He ran in a special election in 1969 to fill the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Rep. Robert Everett but finished third in a race won by Ed Jones.
So valued was Dunavant's grasp of the state budget that Lt. Gov. John Wilder (D-Somerville) was willing to incur the wrath of his party - and jeopardize his own position - by breaking tradition to appoint the Republican to a leadership role on the Finance, Ways and Means Committee.
Wilder and other legislators who served with Dunavant expressed grief over the news.
Dunavant ''was the epitome of what a legislator ought to be: committed, integrity, never a conflict that influenced him not to act in the best interests of Tennessee,'' Wilder said. ''He spoke the truth and stood on convictions. He said what should be done, even in the face of public sentiment and pressure.
''There was nobody who knew more about education and money than he did. He made as large a difference in education as any person could. I thank God that he lived.''
Sen. Curtis Person, (R-Memphis), served with Dunavant in the General Assembly for 26 years and ordered the Senate Judiciary Committee that he chairs halted Tuesday for a moment of silence and prayer in Dunavant's memory.
''He was my dear friend . . . As a legislator, he was the best of the best,'' Person said. ''He's one man whose record truly made a difference in the quality of life for all Tennesseans.''
Sen. Steve Cohen, (D-Memphis), said, ''He had principles that he adhered to and he was a person whose service could be emulated by others to the benefit of the state.''
In the 1980s, it was Dunavant who found funding for construction at State Technical Institute at Memphis.
Dunavant was born Oct. 29, 1919, in Ripley, Tenn. He owned and operated Millington Furniture for more than 30 years before closing it in 1987.
His passions outside politics were the arts and tennis. Dunavant decorated his windowless Legislative Plaza office in Nashville with French Impressionism works. He and his wife were patrons of the opera and Theatre Memphis.
He served in World War II in the Navy and attended college at Union University and the University of Memphis.
Dunavant was a director of the choir at First United Methodist Church.
He leaves, his wife, Deloris Marie Anderson Dunavant of Millington, two daughters Janene Pennel of Nashville and Suzanne Ripski of Cordova and a son Leonard C. Dunavant Jr. of Germantown; a brother, Earl Dunavant of Millington and six grandchildren.
The family requests that any memorials be sent to the Millington First United Methodist Church Organ Fund.
The Millington Republican was remembered as a statesman whose service in the General Assembly and expertise in finance gave his minority party new clout.
Services for Dunavant will be at First United Methodist Church in Millington at 2 p.m. Thursday. Burial will be in Woodhaven Memory Gardens in Millington with Munford Funeral Home Millington Chapel in charge.
Serving as a Republican in a Democratic-controlled Senate, Dunavant earned bipartisan respect for his expertise in finance and service as vice chairman of the Senate Finance Ways and Means Committee.
In Nashville, Gov. Don Sundquist was notified of Dunavant's death after the governor's return from Lamar Alexander's presidential campaign kickoff in Maryville.
''I knew Leonard Dunavant for many years - as an individual, a family man, a statesman and a leader,'' Sundquist said. ''He was unselfish in all he did. The state has lost a good friend and I offer my condolences to his family.''
Dunavant's death came one day after Dr. V. Lane Rawlins, University of Memphis president, announced that the plaza in front of the university's new, $27 million library will be named in Dunavant's honor.
Rawlins praised Dunavant for his ''support of education and keen knowledge of fiscal issues'' and his ''key role'' in securing funds for the library.
Dunavant, a soft-spoken, quick-witted politician, served 14 years as a Millington alderman, six years in the state House of Representatives and 20 years in the state Senate before his defeat in 1992.
Campaigning for re-election in Covington in 1988 at age 68, Dunavant dryly noted that he wasn't the senior senator working the Tipton County Courthouse that day.
Dunavant and Rep. Ed Bryant (R-Tenn.), then a candidate for the Eighth District Congressional seat, had been joined by U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), then 85.
Throughout his career, Dunavant was unafraid to take often unpopular stands. He favored an income tax as a key element in state tax reform, opposed pari-mutuel betting and angered a lobbying group for doctors saying the state's Medicaid program paid them too much.
''If it comes down to it, I'd rather be responsible than be re-elected,'' he said in 1989 regarding a flat-rate income tax.
Such remarks led to defeat in August 1992 when the Tennessee Medical Association, a doctors' lobbying group, poured in almost $24,000 to help Bartlett schoolteacher Tom Leatherwood, also a Republican, win in Senate District 32 - made up of Tipton and Lauderdale counties and northern and part of eastern Shelby County.
After his defeat in the Republican primary, he accepted Gov. Ned McWherter's offer of a job as staff director of his Medicaid Reform Commission.
Although state law allowed Dunavant to keep his unused campaign funds for his personal use after his Senate defeat, he donated the money to the Salvation Army for its Florida hurricane relief effort. He sent $2,759.
Dunavant opposed gambling in 1987 when surveys showed many people favored lotteries, bingo and horse race betting.
''I owe them my time, my thoughts and total consideration, but ultimately I don't owe them my vote,'' he said.
Dunavant was elected to the state House in 1966 and faced only minor opposition while getting re-elected twice and then winning a Senate seat. He ran in a special election in 1969 to fill the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Rep. Robert Everett but finished third in a race won by Ed Jones.
So valued was Dunavant's grasp of the state budget that Lt. Gov. John Wilder (D-Somerville) was willing to incur the wrath of his party - and jeopardize his own position - by breaking tradition to appoint the Republican to a leadership role on the Finance, Ways and Means Committee.
Wilder and other legislators who served with Dunavant expressed grief over the news.
Dunavant ''was the epitome of what a legislator ought to be: committed, integrity, never a conflict that influenced him not to act in the best interests of Tennessee,'' Wilder said. ''He spoke the truth and stood on convictions. He said what should be done, even in the face of public sentiment and pressure.
''There was nobody who knew more about education and money than he did. He made as large a difference in education as any person could. I thank God that he lived.''
Sen. Curtis Person, (R-Memphis), served with Dunavant in the General Assembly for 26 years and ordered the Senate Judiciary Committee that he chairs halted Tuesday for a moment of silence and prayer in Dunavant's memory.
''He was my dear friend . . . As a legislator, he was the best of the best,'' Person said. ''He's one man whose record truly made a difference in the quality of life for all Tennesseans.''
Sen. Steve Cohen, (D-Memphis), said, ''He had principles that he adhered to and he was a person whose service could be emulated by others to the benefit of the state.''
In the 1980s, it was Dunavant who found funding for construction at State Technical Institute at Memphis.
Dunavant was born Oct. 29, 1919, in Ripley, Tenn. He owned and operated Millington Furniture for more than 30 years before closing it in 1987.
His passions outside politics were the arts and tennis. Dunavant decorated his windowless Legislative Plaza office in Nashville with French Impressionism works. He and his wife were patrons of the opera and Theatre Memphis.
He served in World War II in the Navy and attended college at Union University and the University of Memphis.
Dunavant was a director of the choir at First United Methodist Church.
He leaves, his wife, Deloris Marie Anderson Dunavant of Millington, two daughters Janene Pennel of Nashville and Suzanne Ripski of Cordova and a son Leonard C. Dunavant Jr. of Germantown; a brother, Earl Dunavant of Millington and six grandchildren.
The family requests that any memorials be sent to the Millington First United Methodist Church Organ Fund.
Former state senator Leonard C. Dunavant died of cancer at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Methodist Hospital. He was 75.
The Millington Republican was remembered as a statesman whose service in the General Assembly and expertise in finance gave his minority party new clout.
Services for Dunavant will be at First United Methodist Church in Millington at 2 p.m. Thursday. Burial will be in Woodhaven Memory Gardens in Millington with Munford Funeral Home Millington Chapel in charge.
Serving as a Republican in a Democratic-controlled Senate, Dunavant earned bipartisan respect for his expertise in finance and service as vice chairman of the Senate Finance Ways and Means Committee.
In Nashville, Gov. Don Sundquist was notified of Dunavant's death after the governor's return from Lamar Alexander's presidential campaign kickoff in Maryville.
''I knew Leonard Dunavant for many years - as an individual, a family man, a statesman and a leader,'' Sundquist said. ''He was unselfish in all he did. The state has lost a good friend and I offer my condolences to his family.''
Dunavant's death came one day after Dr. V. Lane Rawlins, University of Memphis president, announced that the plaza in front of the university's new, $27 million library will be named in Dunavant's honor.
Rawlins praised Dunavant for his ''support of education and keen knowledge of fiscal issues'' and his ''key role'' in securing funds for the library.
Dunavant, a soft-spoken, quick-witted politician, served 14 years as a Millington alderman, six years in the state House of Representatives and 20 years in the state Senate before his defeat in 1992.
Campaigning for re-election in Covington in 1988 at age 68, Dunavant dryly noted that he wasn't the senior senator working the Tipton County Courthouse that day.
Dunavant and Rep. Ed Bryant (R-Tenn.), then a candidate for the Eighth District Congressional seat, had been joined by U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), then 85.
Throughout his career, Dunavant was unafraid to take often unpopular stands. He favored an income tax as a key element in state tax reform, opposed pari-mutuel betting and angered a lobbying group for doctors saying the state's Medicaid program paid them too much.
''If it comes down to it, I'd rather be responsible than be re-elected,'' he said in 1989 regarding a flat-rate income tax.
Such remarks led to defeat in August 1992 when the Tennessee Medical Association, a doctors' lobbying group, poured in almost $24,000 to help Bartlett schoolteacher Tom Leatherwood, also a Republican, win in Senate District 32 - made up of Tipton and Lauderdale counties and northern and part of eastern Shelby County.
After his defeat in the Republican primary, he accepted Gov. Ned McWherter's offer of a job as staff director of his Medicaid Reform Commission.
Although state law allowed Dunavant to keep his unused campaign funds for his personal use after his Senate defeat, he donated the money to the Salvation Army for its Florida hurricane relief effort. He sent $2,759.
Dunavant opposed gambling in 1987 when surveys showed many people favored lotteries, bingo and horse race betting.
''I owe them my time, my thoughts and total consideration, but ultimately I don't owe them my vote,'' he said.
Dunavant was elected to the state House in 1966 and faced only minor opposition while getting re-elected twice and then winning a Senate seat. He ran in a special election in 1969 to fill the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Rep. Robert Everett but finished third in a race won by Ed Jones.
So valued was Dunavant's grasp of the state budget that Lt. Gov. John Wilder (D-Somerville) was willing to incur the wrath of his party - and jeopardize his own position - by breaking tradition to appoint the Republican to a leadership role on the Finance, Ways and Means Committee.
Wilder and other legislators who served with Dunavant expressed grief over the news.
Dunavant ''was the epitome of what a legislator ought to be: committed, integrity, never a conflict that influenced him not to act in the best interests of Tennessee,'' Wilder said. ''He spoke the truth and stood on convictions. He said what should be done, even in the face of public sentiment and pressure.
''There was nobody who knew more about education and money than he did. He made as large a difference in education as any person could. I thank God that he lived.''
Sen. Curtis Person, (R-Memphis), served with Dunavant in the General Assembly for 26 years and ordered the Senate Judiciary Committee that he chairs halted Tuesday for a moment of silence and prayer in Dunavant's memory.
''He was my dear friend . . . As a legislator, he was the best of the best,'' Person said. ''He's one man whose record truly made a difference in the quality of life for all Tennesseans.''
Sen. Steve Cohen, (D-Memphis), said, ''He had principles that he adhered to and he was a person whose service could be emulated by others to the benefit of the state.''
In the 1980s, it was Dunavant who found funding for construction at State Technical Institute at Memphis.
Dunavant was born Oct. 29, 1919, in Ripley, Tenn. He owned and operated Millington Furniture for more than 30 years before closing it in 1987.
His passions outside politics were the arts and tennis. Dunavant decorated his windowless Legislative Plaza office in Nashville with French Impressionism works. He and his wife were patrons of the opera and Theatre Memphis.
He served in World War II in the Navy and attended college at Union University and the University of Memphis.
Dunavant was a director of the choir at First United Methodist Church.
He leaves, his wife, Deloris Marie Anderson Dunavant of Millington, two daughters Janene Pennel of Nashville and Suzanne Ripski of Cordova and a son Leonard C. Dunavant Jr. of Germantown; a brother, Earl Dunavant of Millington and six grandchildren.
The family requests that any memorials be sent to the Millington First United Methodist Church Organ Fund.
The Millington Republican was remembered as a statesman whose service in the General Assembly and expertise in finance gave his minority party new clout.
Services for Dunavant will be at First United Methodist Church in Millington at 2 p.m. Thursday. Burial will be in Woodhaven Memory Gardens in Millington with Munford Funeral Home Millington Chapel in charge.
Serving as a Republican in a Democratic-controlled Senate, Dunavant earned bipartisan respect for his expertise in finance and service as vice chairman of the Senate Finance Ways and Means Committee.
In Nashville, Gov. Don Sundquist was notified of Dunavant's death after the governor's return from Lamar Alexander's presidential campaign kickoff in Maryville.
''I knew Leonard Dunavant for many years - as an individual, a family man, a statesman and a leader,'' Sundquist said. ''He was unselfish in all he did. The state has lost a good friend and I offer my condolences to his family.''
Dunavant's death came one day after Dr. V. Lane Rawlins, University of Memphis president, announced that the plaza in front of the university's new, $27 million library will be named in Dunavant's honor.
Rawlins praised Dunavant for his ''support of education and keen knowledge of fiscal issues'' and his ''key role'' in securing funds for the library.
Dunavant, a soft-spoken, quick-witted politician, served 14 years as a Millington alderman, six years in the state House of Representatives and 20 years in the state Senate before his defeat in 1992.
Campaigning for re-election in Covington in 1988 at age 68, Dunavant dryly noted that he wasn't the senior senator working the Tipton County Courthouse that day.
Dunavant and Rep. Ed Bryant (R-Tenn.), then a candidate for the Eighth District Congressional seat, had been joined by U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), then 85.
Throughout his career, Dunavant was unafraid to take often unpopular stands. He favored an income tax as a key element in state tax reform, opposed pari-mutuel betting and angered a lobbying group for doctors saying the state's Medicaid program paid them too much.
''If it comes down to it, I'd rather be responsible than be re-elected,'' he said in 1989 regarding a flat-rate income tax.
Such remarks led to defeat in August 1992 when the Tennessee Medical Association, a doctors' lobbying group, poured in almost $24,000 to help Bartlett schoolteacher Tom Leatherwood, also a Republican, win in Senate District 32 - made up of Tipton and Lauderdale counties and northern and part of eastern Shelby County.
After his defeat in the Republican primary, he accepted Gov. Ned McWherter's offer of a job as staff director of his Medicaid Reform Commission.
Although state law allowed Dunavant to keep his unused campaign funds for his personal use after his Senate defeat, he donated the money to the Salvation Army for its Florida hurricane relief effort. He sent $2,759.
Dunavant opposed gambling in 1987 when surveys showed many people favored lotteries, bingo and horse race betting.
''I owe them my time, my thoughts and total consideration, but ultimately I don't owe them my vote,'' he said.
Dunavant was elected to the state House in 1966 and faced only minor opposition while getting re-elected twice and then winning a Senate seat. He ran in a special election in 1969 to fill the seat vacated by the death of U.S. Rep. Robert Everett but finished third in a race won by Ed Jones.
So valued was Dunavant's grasp of the state budget that Lt. Gov. John Wilder (D-Somerville) was willing to incur the wrath of his party - and jeopardize his own position - by breaking tradition to appoint the Republican to a leadership role on the Finance, Ways and Means Committee.
Wilder and other legislators who served with Dunavant expressed grief over the news.
Dunavant ''was the epitome of what a legislator ought to be: committed, integrity, never a conflict that influenced him not to act in the best interests of Tennessee,'' Wilder said. ''He spoke the truth and stood on convictions. He said what should be done, even in the face of public sentiment and pressure.
''There was nobody who knew more about education and money than he did. He made as large a difference in education as any person could. I thank God that he lived.''
Sen. Curtis Person, (R-Memphis), served with Dunavant in the General Assembly for 26 years and ordered the Senate Judiciary Committee that he chairs halted Tuesday for a moment of silence and prayer in Dunavant's memory.
''He was my dear friend . . . As a legislator, he was the best of the best,'' Person said. ''He's one man whose record truly made a difference in the quality of life for all Tennesseans.''
Sen. Steve Cohen, (D-Memphis), said, ''He had principles that he adhered to and he was a person whose service could be emulated by others to the benefit of the state.''
In the 1980s, it was Dunavant who found funding for construction at State Technical Institute at Memphis.
Dunavant was born Oct. 29, 1919, in Ripley, Tenn. He owned and operated Millington Furniture for more than 30 years before closing it in 1987.
His passions outside politics were the arts and tennis. Dunavant decorated his windowless Legislative Plaza office in Nashville with French Impressionism works. He and his wife were patrons of the opera and Theatre Memphis.
He served in World War II in the Navy and attended college at Union University and the University of Memphis.
Dunavant was a director of the choir at First United Methodist Church.
He leaves, his wife, Deloris Marie Anderson Dunavant of Millington, two daughters Janene Pennel of Nashville and Suzanne Ripski of Cordova and a son Leonard C. Dunavant Jr. of Germantown; a brother, Earl Dunavant of Millington and six grandchildren.
The family requests that any memorials be sent to the Millington First United Methodist Church Organ Fund.
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
