State and local representatives joined with members of the community Thursday to rename a section of Highway 15 in honor of Rep. Raymond Comans, a Decatur resident and longtime public servant.
Comans, a veteran of the United States Air Force, furniture store owner and father, served as the state representative for District 78 from 1964 until 1976 and again from 1984 to 2000, supporting efforts to create libraries, bringing mental health facilities to Newton and supporting junior colleges across the state.
Transportation Commissioner Dick Hall, who served with Comans in the legislature, served as the master of ceremonies for Thursday’s dedication. Coming from North Jackson, Hall said, he and Comans had different priorities, but he could tell Comans was dedicated to helping the people of his district.
Recalling his time with Comans, Hall said no issue stood out to him more than the 1987 Four-Lane program, an effort to widen highways throughout the state. That legislation, he said, may have been the “most significant piece of legislation in the past half-century.”
“During that debate, a lot of things were proposed. Some of them made sense, and some of them did not,” he said. “But, Representative Comans got up and offered an amendment to four-lane Highway 15 from the Gulf Coast to the state of Tennessee.”
Unfortunately, Comans’ amendment was not passed. At the time, Hall said, the impact of that decision didn’t fully dawn on him. Realizing it later, however, he said Comans had been right all along.
“A few years later, I realized how important that was, and I’m so sorry we didn’t get it done at that time. If we had gotten that done as part of the 1987 four-lane program, the economy in east Mississippi would be a lot different than it is today.”
Randy Rushing, current District 78 representative, said he remembered Comans as both a mentor and friend. When deciding to run for state office, Rushing said Comans reached out to him, encouraging him to wait, to seek a local office first.
“I didn’t know, at that time, what wise words he was telling me,” he said. “We had a good guy over there, and I should have run for something else. And, that guy put me in my place and showed me I should have run for something else.”
Later on, Rushing said he and Comans became good friends, discussing politics, funding and how to tackle the issues affecting District 78 locally and in Jackson. When he decided to run for state office again in 2007, Rushing said, he realized he had, “some pretty big shoes to fill.”
Throughout the dedication ceremony, many state and local officials shared their own testimony of how Comans had encouraged and guided them through their own careers and how his work in Jackson had benefited the residents of District 78 and the state of Mississippi.
Public service was the cornerstone of Comans’ life, his daughter Cheryl Comans said, and he would have been extremely grateful to see all the faces at the dedication ceremony recognizing him for his work.
Editor's Note: Rep. Comans' second term in office was not listed in the original story. That has been updated and is correct as published now.
