“It’s a true rags to riches story,” Murphree says, pointing out that the County’s developing tourism industry has created more jobs than its residents can fill. Employers in Tunica County need about 19,000 workers, and the labor force is only about 6,000 people. “We have buses that come up from Bolivar County and Tallahatchie County everyday,” he says, reflecting on the economic benefits that accrue to residents of other portions of the Delta because of Tunica’s prosperity.

Tunica County is currently involved in a $38 million airport project (the federal share of the cost is $25 million, while the county is investing $13 million and the state is chipping in $640,000), a $23 million RiverPark project, and the $12 million development of a championship-quality public golf course. A portion of the airport project is expected to be complete by late May or early June, and the target date for completion of the golf course is September, Murphree says.

“We try to be developer-friendly. We do all that we can to facilitate private investment in Tunica County,” he says, explaining that a key element in the County’s strategy is to make sure it spends the money it reaps from gaming on public improvements that will in turn pay for themselves.

Murphree has, in one way or another, taken an interest in public affairs and the management of resources for most of his life. He studied political science at Ole Miss as an undergraduate, and then served a tour in the U.S. Army as a young officer in the Quartermaster Corps. His unit supplied food and clothing for the elite 101st Airborne Division. Murphree recalls his experience leading 150 men in a company dedicated to handling logistical challenges as “one of the highlights of my life.” He is a Vietnam veteran.

When he returned to Mississippi, Murphree took a master’s degree in urban and regional planning at Ole Miss and started work in 1972 with the DeSoto County Planning Commission as a planner. He became director in 1975 of DeSoto County’s Office of Program Development, and in 1978 took over as director of the Planning Commission. From 1980 until early 1994, he was county administrator for DeSoto County. He announced that year that he would retire from public service to enter private business as a real estate broker and a consultant in the field of urban planning.

What happened instead is that Tunica County officials sought him out as their new county administrator. He didn’t take the job out of missionary zeal to promote his home county; he took it for personal reasons. Yet, he acknowledges he derives satisfaction from seeing Tunica County residents take hold of the optimism and hope that are byproducts of economic development. “This is my home. This is what I’m about,” he says.

When Murphree first became a county administrator nearly 25 years ago, you could count on your hands the number of Mississippi’s 82 counties that had such positions. Since that time, though, county administrators have become common across the state. About half the counties require the position as a feature of the Unit System of government, and many of the Beat System counties have an administrator even though it isn’t required, he says. Having observed the development of the county administrator function in Mississippi government, Murphree is better suited than most to comment on the qualities county supervisors should look for in a job candidate. However, he argues that you can’t boil it down to a fixed set of characteristics and strengths.

“I think I would differ from county to county,” Murphree says. He credits Hugh Jack Stubbs, county administrator of Coahoma County with excellence in finance and administration, and he cites his own background in planning and development as the preparation he needed to be able to step in and help Tunica County as it sought to manage the resources that gaming brought its way.

Murphree says Tunica County officials have sought to balance their thirst for economic growth with a solid financial commitment to educational achievement. The county invests twelve percent of the revenues it realizes from gaming interests in public education, and a chunk of that money is set aside to help supplement teacher salaries. He also points to the creation of recreation facilities, which offer art and computer labs, as well as literacy classes and after-school tutoring, as evidence of Tunica County’s awareness of the central role that improved learning will play in the continued financial success of the community.

“Our school system, ten years ago, had (standardized) test scores that were among the lowest in the state. We’re making great improvement in that,” Murphree says. The schools have taken care to raise the quality of instruction, and the test scores are trending upward in response to that, he says.

As Murphree describes the priorities and projects that he and other Tunica County officials have embraced, he comes across as a man more impressed by substance than by style, a man whose passion for hard work and prudent investment make him a steady guide to community development. He clearly balances all that hard work with a good company commander’s awareness of the value of group morale.

“Because of our focus on trying to develop this tourism industry, there’s a sense of hope and optimism in Tunica County that hasn’t existed before,” he says, stressing that no capital improvement project is an end in itself. A core part of his message is that the golf course isn’t just a place to play golf, and the airport isn’t just a sparkling venue in which to house aircraft. The pieces are all part of a plan. Ultimately, that plan is the product of cooperation between government, business, and promotional agencies such as the Tunica Convention and Visitors Bureau, which rises to the challenge by boldly characterizing Hernando DeSoto as northwest Mississippi’s “first tourist.” DBJ