Edgar Donahoe served more than three decades as Ward 4 Supervisor in Sunflower County, and he is one of the few politicians to have left office with virtually no enemies to speak of.
“Mr. Donahoe stood for what was right,” said Glenn Donald, who served with Donahoe for over a decade and now holds Donahoe’s former title of President of the Board of Supervisors.
Donahoe passed away this week, departing a world he made better by spearheading large building projects and by simply lending a helping hand to anyone who needed it.
“I wish I was more like Mr. Donahoe, and I try to be daily,” said Sunflower County Supervisor Dennis Holmes. “He was just one of a kind.”
Donahoe grew up on a farm in the Roundaway community, according to a 2015 profile written by The Enterprise-Tocsin. From his early teens, he showed a knack for taking care of cattle, and that is how he ended up at the local 4-H club.
That is where he met his wife, Margie Nell Mitchell Donahoe.
The two married just after graduating high school, the article said.
In the late 1960s, Donahoe would lease the farmland that belonged to his parents and decided to take a job at Ludlow Corp. in Indianola.
He worked there for nearly 15 years before launching his first campaign for the Board of Supervisors in 1983. He won 309 of the 320 votes that year, and he would not lose to an opponent in 32 years.
“He retired,” Donald said. “I don’t think he would have ever gotten beaten, because everybody loved him.”
Donahoe was known for campaigning without the aid of business cards, campaign slogans and large signs.
“He didn’t buy campaign cards, and he didn’t put up signs,” Holmes said. “Donahoe said, if you go around and you talk to people, you don’t need to campaign.”
Donald said Donahoe wasn’t the kind of politician that showed up every four years to ask for a vote. He was present in the community throughout his entire term.
“He went to African-American churches at any time.” Donald said. “No trip was too far for him.”
Donald said Donahoe attended his wedding and stayed for the reception.
Holmes said he remembers Donahoe for his easy-going nature during meetings, a forum that is known to be tense and sometimes heated.
“I sat right next to Mr. Donahoe for 16 years and never saw him get upset,” Holmes said. “He was level-headed. He calmed the bunch of us down.”
“He Wanted to Help the Whole County”
Donahoe’s colleagues said his heart was always in the right place.
That might be the reason why he was able to get so many projects going in Sunflower County.
During his tenure, he was instrumental in the construction of the Sunflower County Livestock Barn in Sunflower, welfare offices in Indianola and Ruleville and the Sunflower County Jail, along with playing a key role in the rebirth of North Sunflower Medical Center.
“He fought to keep it open when everybody wanted to close it,” said Billy Marlow, who now serves as Director of NSMC. “That was a tremendous move they made. It was very brave.”
Marlow said Donahoe’s acts of kindness and hard work were not confined to Ward 4.
“He was a very loyal Sunflower Countian,” Marlow said. “He wanted to help the whole county.”
According to the 2015 article, it was Donahoe that made the motion to loan the hospital money to cover payroll for an entire quarter.
“He will be greatly missed, and it will be hard to ever replace him,” Marlow said.
Donahoe told The E-T in 2015 that two moments that stood out in his political career were when he made the motion to build a new county jail and when he helped secure grant funds for the Indianola and Ruleville welfare offices.
Donahoe said at the time that he did not like the fact that folks from all over the county were having to drive or catch a ride to Indianola to pick up food stamps every month.
Donald said he remembers a time when a family in Donahoe’s district lost a loved one, and one of the visiting relatives got very sick after the funeral and had to be taken to the emergency room.
Donahoe followed them there, Donald said, and told the staff to tend to the person and send the bill to him and to just make sure they get waited on, since they were from out of town.
“That’s the type of person he was,” Donald said. “He didn’t care whether you were black, white, Jew, gentile, protestant, Catholic. He didn’t care. He was a lover of people.”
Holmes said Donahoe was a man of sympathy and empathy when it came to his fellow Sunflower Countians.
“He hated to see anybody without a job,” Holmes said. “He had other people’s feelings at heart all of the time. If everybody was like Mr. Donahoe, the world would be a better place.”
