Former First Lady Dies

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Former Mississippi first lady Carroll Waller, who led efforts to restore the Governor’s Mansion when her husband was in office, has died at age 87.

Her family says she died Tuesday at Manhattan Nursing Home in Jackson, after a lengthy bout with Alzheimer’s disease.
Funeral arrangements were pending.

Democrat Bill Waller Sr. was governor from 1972-76.

Carroll Waller and historian David Sansing co-wrote “The History of the Mississippi Governor’s Mansion,” which helped raise money to restore the 1842 home. The Wallers lived in the mansion only a few months after it reopened.
She is survived by four sons, including Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr.; two sisters and 14 grandchildren.

The former governor was 85 when he died in November 2011. The Wallers’ daughter, Gloria, died in 1981.