Mayor, ag commissioner candidate dies in car accident

PICKENS — Mayor Joel Gill, who was a past candidate for Mississippi agriculture commissioner and U.S. Congress, has died in a car accident. He was 61.

His wife Ann Gill said he died yesterday afternoon in the accident.

Gill, a Democrat, was elected mayor in 2009 and had served as an alderman before then in Pickens, a small town about 50 miles north of Jackson.

Gill’s wife said he was a kind man who “would help anyone” in need. She said funeral arrangements haven’t been made.

Gill was the Democratic candidate in last year’s race for commissioner of agriculture, losing to Republican challenger Cindy Hyde-Smith. He had also run for Congress in the past.