Wayne Burkes
Wayne Oliver Burkes (December 6, 1929 – May 5, 2020) was an American politician, Baptist minister, and military officer.
Burkes was born in Neshoba County, Mississippi near Philadelphia, Mississippi. He graduated from Mississippi College and studied at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He was ordained a Baptist minister and served in several churches. Burkes served in the Mississippi Air National Guard and was commissioned a lieutenant general. Burkes served as a Democrat in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1976 to 1980 and in the Mississippi Senate from 1980 to 1989. He switched to the Republican party in the 1990s and was nominated by President Bill Clinton to a seat on the Surface Transportation Board, and served from 1999 to 2002. He ran for Mississippi State Treasurer in 2003, but lost to future Governor Tate Reeves in the Republican primary. Burkes died at the Mississippi Veterans House in Kosciusko, Mississippi.[1][2][3][4]