Long-Time Lee County Lawmaker Dies

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) – Former state Rep. Eloise Hale Scott of Tupelo, a former teacher who pushed for public education funding during her 16 years at the Capitol, has died. She was 81.

Holland Funeral Directors says Scott died late Wednesday at United Methodist Senior Services in Tupelo.

Services are at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Tupelo chapel of Holland Funeral Directors, with burial in Lee Memorial Park.

Scott taught home economics at Mooreville High School more than 30 years before she was elected to the Mississippi House in November 1987. She was a Democrat, and represented District 17 in Lee County. Scott chose not to seek a fifth term in November 2003.

She was a founding member of the Mississippi Commission on the Status of Women. She was named Tupelo’s Outstanding Citizen in 2000.