BY Nancy Cotten Hirst
DBJ Contributing Writer

Chief Engineer for the Mississippi Levee Board. "He’s done well with us, and he always has time for us when we go up there (to Washington)."
Wicker himself believes this subcommittee is crucial to Mississippi’s interests. "Those types of government projects are the very reason I requested, and worked very hard to get on, that subcommittee. We need to get the water off the land when it threatens farmers and takes lands off the tax rolls.
"The DEC, for instance, experiments with innovative ways to prevent erosion so that creeks and rivers don’t fill back up and flood the land. I’m a big advocate of programs that protect people’s lands, homes and jobs–protection of people’s livelihoods, and many people in Mississippi make a living off the land. That, in turn, influences our ability to balance the budget, and I’m a big advocate of a balanced budget," Wicker explains.
Wicker is also a big advocate of agriculture, although his powers there consist only of voting for good farm legislation. He chuckles about that, saying, "The Delta doesn’t really need me there except to vote because Thad Cochran takes good care of them."
He was glad to vote for the new farm bill, however, because he was aware of the difficulties involved with the "Freedom to Farm" act. "It’s easy to say from some ivory tower that agriculture should be market driven. That is theory that doesn’t take into account weather, international prices and pressures, and heavy subsidies in other countries against which we have to compete. I listen to farmers pretty well. The Farm Bureau and Delta Council rarely steer me wrong. My support of agriculture is mostly my just listening – they have to put the seeds in the ground."
Representative Wicker also sits on the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education Subcommittee, and has been honored several times for his work in cancer research, heart disease prevention, diabetes research and polio eradication. "HHS involves the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and I found that Mississippi is the epicenter of the stroke and heart disease belt–right smack in the Delta.
"These are behavior-driven diseases– not just heart and stroke, but lung disease, diabetes, sexually-transmitted diseases, juvenile obesity. Education is part of the solution, but we haven’t quite gotten a handle on the whole problem. We’ve got our work cut out for us. We have, however, increased the CDC budget for these problems and we’ve increased the research dollars at our colleges and universities as well at the University Medical Center. These diseases have a huge cost, both in dollars and in human suffering," Wicker says.
Education is another area in which Wicker is supportive of programs beneficial to the Delta, although he points out that while the problem is severe in the Delta, it is almost universal, particularly with technology moving so rapidly. Here again, he believes that some of the problems are behavior-driven and that a lot of work must take place before the problems are solved.
Wicker is intense and focused when discussing his congressional responsibilities, and it is obvious that he takes his public trust very seriously. He slips easily, however, into relaxed and humor-laced conversation when the subject turns to his family, his interests, and his history.
"I grew up on Highway 15 North, just inside the Pontotoc city limits, and I knew everybody up and down the street. My father was a small town lawyer. He was County Attorney for 12 years, City Attorney for eight years, then he was a State Senator and later a Circuit Judge.
"My mother taught school for awhile and then worked for him. It was a Mom and Pop law office. She even traveled with him when he was a judge. She would do geneaology research in the courthouses while Daddy tried the cases. They’re still very much inseparable–except when Daddy goes to hunting camp. She draws the line there.
"Daddy was very active in the Development Association, so I grew up watching my father and mother work to get the airport developed, get the first plant in– which was upholstered furniture–and before long an entire industrial park, manufacturing everything from metal springs to golf clubs.
"My sister, Ellen, lives in Virginia Beach now. In fact, she’s coming home soon to hear me make the commencement address at the W. She and mother both graduated there. When we were growing up, we were both involved in a lot of extra-curricular activities, but on the afternoons when we didn’t have a practice or meeting or something, we would just go to the law office and do our homework."
Wicker cites activities when he was very young such as Cub Scouts and Little League. "I pretty much peaked in Little League," he chuckles about his team sports talents. He always enjoyed fishing and still does, and he played tennis and golf in high school.
Wicker showed an early interest in the type of activities which would lead to his political career. "He was always deeply interested in public policy, not so much in politics per se," says Chip Morgan, Executive Director of the Delta Council. "I first met him at Boys’ State and even then he was very involved in high school student government.
"I got to know him a lot better in college when we were both involved in Young Republicans. He was a work horse, not a show horse. He would do all the little things no one wanted to do. He is a real bright guy, and very important to the State of Mississippi. He is an extremely good role model for a pubic servant."
This early interest in public policy eventually won Wicker his wife, the former Gayle Long of Tupelo. "We met for the first time in high school at the Mississippi Youth Congress," Wicker says. "We got to know each other in college through the campus Republican organization, but we didn’t really start dating until I was in law school."
Wicker obtained both his B.A. and law degrees from Ole Miss while his wife-to-be received her B.A. and M.A. from Mississippi College. Wicker was at Ole Miss on an ROTC scholarship, and while he was commissioned immediately, he was able to get a delay from active service until he completed his law degree.
He then spent four years in the Air Force as a Judge Advocate. "Practicing law was not my favorite thing to do," Wicker admits, "but the setting in the Air Force is good. We were at the base at Goldsboro, N.C. I prosecuted for awhile and defended for awhile. We had our first child there."
After active duty, Wicker transferred to the Reserves in 1980, and is currently a Lieutenant Colonel. He then joined (then-Representative, now Senator) Trent Lott’s office as Counsel on the House Rules Committee.
In 1987, he became a State Senator, and in 1995 was successful in succeeding Jamie Whitten, for whom he had once been a page, in his present position.
While doing all of this, he had remained active in his hometown community, serving actively in the Lions Club, the Community Development Foundation and the First Baptist Church, where he is both a Deacon and a member of the choir. He has served as Chairman of the Deacons and as a Sunday School teacher.
Wicker has always enjoyed choral music, having sung in both his high school and Air Force choruses. He also enjoys theater. "I used to be in plays," he says of his experiences with the Tupelo Community Theater. In addition to serving on the Board, Wicker acted in such plays as “The Crucible,” “On Golden Pond,” and narrated “A Christmas Carol”–two of these as recently as 1998 and 2000.
Wicker says he reads a lot and cites Eudora Welty (whom he says is a national treasure), John Forsythe, John LeCarre, and lots of history as examples. He highly recommends John Barry’s Rising Tide for history buffs.
He thoroughly enjoys fishing with his son, McDaniel (15), and says both his father and his son are avid hunters (quail and dove). "I go along with the gag," Wicker quips, "just to be a good sport, but at age 77, my father is still a dead shot."
Wicker is extremely proud of his children. He describes them as "involved in everything." His eldest, Margaret, is graduating from the University of Virginia, and "already has two really strong job leads." The middle child, Caroline, is graduating from high school with straight A’s for six years, and headed for Ole Miss. The aforementioned McDaniel is two merit badges from Eagle Scout, plays several sports and is a straight A student.
Wicker makes it a point to be home every weekend, a priority certain to make for Thursday afternoon headaches for his scheduler, but vital to good parenting and husbanding. He says that with that schedule and his recesses, he and his wife manage to be together more than half the time. Mrs. Wicker manages the Days Inn in Tupelo for her father, but even with a career and the children, manages to make Washington visits occasionally.
In closing the interview, Wicker mentions an afternoon appointment with President Bush, during which he will present a quilt made in Mississippi. After a short pause with perfect comedic timing, he deadpans, "but tomorrow is Julia Roberts." A merry chuckle follows as this most serious public servant enjoys a moment of levity in his busy schedule. DBJ