JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Vowing to live out his days with “the gusto of a hound dog,” one of the legislature’s more colorful members announced Friday he had dementia and would step down at the end of his term - an announcement met with a standing ovation and prayers from his colleagues.
For once, the rowdy Mississippi House of Representatives was silent as they listened to Rep. Steve Holland present his prognosis.
“I am afflicted with dementia,” the Democrat from Plantersville announced from the podium of the House floor, his voice hitching. “I now join thousands of Mississippians facing an uncertain future.”
The 61-year-old lawmaker announced Friday that he was formally diagnosed last week at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and will retire at the end of his four-year term. At this point in the disease he has bad days and good days, and as things stand he plans to serve out his current term through 2019. But he knows the disease will only worsen.
On the bad days, Holland said in an interview as he drove to the hospital for his almost daily appointment, he doesn’t recognize names or faces or even where he is. He can be behind the wheel of a car and suddenly have no idea where he’s going.
“I have paced myself this session,” Holland said, even though he reported feeling better in Jackson than he usually did back home. The fast pace of the legislature, his doctor suggested, helped keep his mind busy.
As part of his therapy, he usually plays piano for an hour a day in a Jackson church_reading from sheet music, not from memory.
Holland is an undertaker who has served in the Mississippi legislature since 1984. He’s well-known for dramatic floor speeches and humor, often rallying opposition to Republican measures. In 2012, Holland introduced a satirical resolution to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, trying to make a point about what he saw as anti-Mexican bias.
“The folks in Lee County have believed in my mission for over nine terms - even if they haven’t believed in my style or my warped display of passion,” he quipped Friday.
But the Lee County representative is more than a jester.
When Democrats held the majority, Holland was a key policymaker, and was especially close to House Speaker Billy McCoy from 2004 to 2012. Holland served as the chairman of the House Public Health Committee, shaping Medicaid and other programs. He also led the House Agriculture Committee and was a prime backer of a beef-processing plant in Yalobusha County that turned into a financial and legal debacle.
Holland and his wife discussed keeping the diagnosis private, he said, but ultimately decided to go public to raise awareness of the condition.
One longtime friend and colleague, Democrat Tommy Reynolds of Charleston, will miss Holland’s company on the floor. He hopes his friend’s diagnosis isn’t as bad as he implied.
“He can say things that other people_they’d want to get up and choke somebody for,” he said. “But he brings issues up that need to be brought.”
The House gave Holland’s speech a standing ovation. Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn of Clinton led a prayer for his colleague.
“As a professional undertaker, I have looked death in the face for over 40 years now,” Holland said. “Remember, I’m a tough old bird.”
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Associated Press writer Jeff Amy contributed to this report.
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