Political luminaries, friends, and family gathered today to remember and honor Former Governor Jim Holshouser, who passed away earlier this week after an extended illness.
Guests at today’s funeral included current Governor Pat McCrory and former Governors Jim Hunt, Mike Easley and Beverly Perdue.
His daughter, Ginny Holshouser Mills, remembered her father as a politician who got things done through relationships: "Daddy was once asked how he wanted to be remembered," she said. "He said 'some say I ought to be called the Education Governor or the Good Roads Governor or the Health-Care Governor, but all I hope is that you'll remember me as a Governor who cares about you.'"
Holshouser's Pastor, Rev. Grady Perryman, also referred to the Governor's sense of humor, telling a story that occurred after the Governor's kidney transplant: "I'm not sure, I've heard it told both ways, it was either his spunky mother or Jim himself, who said: 'this kidney must have been given to me by a democrat; it puts out more than it takes in'."
After he left the Governor's office in 1977, Holshouser worked as an attorney and served several terms on the UNC Board of Governors.
