Longtime Tuscaloosa Mayor Dies at 94 in Canton

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) – Tuscaloosa, Alabama’s longtime mayor, Al DuPont, has died at a nursing home in East Texas. He was 94. The Tuscaloosa News reports DuPont, who died Wednesday, was first elected mayor in 1981 and served six terms before he retired on his 80th birthday in 2005. DuPont lived in a home he rebuilt after the April 27, 2011 Tuscaloosa tornado until his health worsened a few months ago. He moved to a nursing home in Canton, Texas, to be near his family after suffering a stroke in April.

A funeral Mass will be held Saturday at 2 p.m. at St. Francis of Assisi University Parish Catholic Church in Tuscaloosa. Burial will follow at Evergreen Cemetery, where his wife of 64 years, Susie Margaret, was buried in 2010. Mayor Walt Maddox, in a statement, described DuPont as an American hero “who served our country and our city with distinction.”