Cullman Mayor Donald Green smiles at wife Dean after the Ingle Park senior center was renamed the Donald E. Green Senior Center on Wednesday, September 6, 2006.

The Times is counting down its top stories of 2022. Here’s No. 10.

The past year left Cullman County bereft of both present-day and previous leaders with deep ties to the area’s growth and success as the City of Cullman lost both a longtime sitting council member as well as a former mayor, while Dodge City lost two sitting mayors in the span of only eight months.

Death claimed four well-known local leaders this past year, three of whom were serving out an ongoing term in office at the time of their passing.

On Jan. 5, Cullman City Council member and beloved retired local football coach and teacher Andy Page passed away at the age of 81 while serving early in his fourth elected term. Citing respect for all Page had accomplished in elevating local sports tourism and other acts of service, the council opted to leave Page’s seat unfilled for more than four months after his death, finally appointing a replacement in late May to finish out Page’s Place 1 term on the council.

Less than a week after Page’s death, Dodge City mayor Tawana Canada passed away at the age of 67. At the time of her Jan. 11 death, the Cullman County native and beloved local figure was serving the south Cullman County town as only its second-ever mayor, having originally been appointed to replace former mayor Perry Ray at the time of his 2009 passing, before Canada was subsequently elected to successive mayoral terms.

Longtime Dodge City public servant and then-council member Anthony Todd was appointed to fill the vacancy left by Canada’s death. But on Sept. 12, Todd also passed away at the age of 74.

Like Canada, Todd’s history at Dodge City extended back to the days before the town had even been incorporated: He was among the residents who originally petitioned for Dodge City to become a municipality before joining its very first administration as the elected Place 3 council member. Todd held Place 3 through every succeeding elected term until his brief appointed stint in the mayor’s chair this year. Since Todd’s passing, the council has appointed long-serving council member Jason Burney as the town’s mayor.

Though he had retreated from many aspects of public life in the years since leaving the Cullman mayor’s seat in 2008, Donald Green’s local legacy remained an ever-present part of the community at the time the former educator and longtime local leader passed away on July 4.

Green’s 27 years of municipal service extended to 1978, the first year he was elected to a seat on the Cullman City Council. He would go on to be elected to consecutive mayoral terms beginning in 2000, steering the city through an active growth period that saw a vast expansion of public parks as well as a diversifying economic base. Green was 87 years old at the time of his death.