Associated Press



BOAZ — Elected leaders gathered Wednesday with friends and family of former Gov. Guy Hunt to remember the country preacher who became Alabama’s first Republican chief executive since Reconstruction, helping create a two-party system in the state.

Standing behind Hunt’s casket, draped with a U.S. flag, speakers at a state funeral recalled Hunt as a simple man who broke through to win the state’s highest office after a Democratic debacle in 1986. Hunt later lost the position because of a felony ethics conviction.

Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican, said the Primitive Baptist preacher was guided through tough decisions and trials by his Christian faith.

“Guy Hunt was one of those truly unique individuals that you knew, no matter what the situation, what side he could come down on,” said Riley. “His faith was pre-eminent. His family was next.”

The memorial program referred to the former governor as “Elder Guy Hunt,” using his title in the church and making no mention of his governorship.

Remembering the felony conviction that resulted in Hunt’s removal from office midway through his second term in 1993, Secretary of State Beth Chapman said Hunt was a man who was falsely accused and wrongly convicted because of partisan politics.

“I knew a very broken and humble Guy Hunt,” said Chapman, recalling the state hearing that resulted in him receiving a pardon in 1998.

Hunt died Friday in a hospital. He was treated for cancer for several years and never fully recovered following gall bladder surgery in November.

The crowd of more than 1,000 people included one-time members of Hunt’s administration, state elected officials and members of the Alabama Legislature, which postponed committee hearings in Montgomery to allow lawmakers to attend.

Hunt’s only son, Keith Hunt, thanked friends and family for their support.

“I don’t know how anyone could make it through what we’ve been through without someone there with him,” said Hunt.

The former governor also is survived by his second wife, Anne, and three daughters. His first wife, former first lady Helen Hunt, died in 2004.

The state memorial was held in an auditorium at Snead State Community College, where Keith Hunt works. It was followed by a private funeral for the family and burial at Mt. Vemon Primitive Baptist Church in Baileyton where Hunt preached for decades, even during his years as governor.

Hunt, a Holly Pond farmer who served as Cullman County’s probate judge, pulled off the most unlikely of victories in 1986, when infighting split Alabama’s Democratic Party and left Hunt with 56 percent of the votes in the general election.

Hunt was the first Republican elected governor since 1872. Jack Hawkins, chancellor of Troy University, called him “the founder of the two-party system in Alabama.”

Hunt won a second term as governor in 1990, but he was convicted of violating the state ethics law for misusing 1987 inaugural funds and was kicked out of office. He couldn’t restart his political career, despite the pardon.

Elbert Peters, who served as chairman of the Alabama GOP during Hunt’s time, criticized Hunt’s prosecution by then-Attorney General Jimmy Evans, a Democrat, as “very unfair.”

“Yes, yes,” someone called out in a deep voice from the audience.

Republican Attorney General Troy King described Hunt as humble and forgiving. King recalled that Hunt once joked it was fitting that an interstate rest stop was named after him rather than a building in the capital.

“It is not likely that Alabama will see another man like Guy Hunt anytime soon,” said King.