Former Miss. Governor Candidate Dies

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Leon Bramlett, the Republican nominee for Mississippi governor in 1983, has died at age 92.

Meredith-Nowell Funeral Home in Clarksdale says Bramlett died Monday. Plans for services were incomplete.

Bramlett was a businessman and farmer in Clarksdale.

He was an All-American football player for the Naval Academy in 1944 and 1945.

Bramlett was a former Democrat who unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor in 1979.

He became the GOP nominee in 1983, but his candidacy was overshadowed when three transvestite prostitutes claimed they had sex with the Democratic nominee, state Attorney General Bill Allain. Bramlett refused to promote the story, which was based on an investigation funded by Republican campaign donors.

Allain denied the accusations and was elected governor. The prostitutes later recanted their stories. Allain died in 2013.