on a platform of increased highway construction, program budgeting for state agencies, and the revival of referendums. He finished third in the first primary. He supported Republican Kirk Fordice's gubernatorial reelection campaign in 1995 and Haley Barbour's reelection in 2007. He was opposed to removing the Confederate battle flag canton from the flag of Mississippi. Later life and legacy In 2007, Waller released an autobiography, Straight Ahead: Memoirs of a Mississippi Governor. On November 29, 2011, Waller was admitted to the St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson. He died there the following day at the age of 85 and was buried in Jessamine Cemetery in Ridgeland. Journalist Hodding Carter III believed Waller's time in office was "inconsequential". Historian David Sansing opined that "Waller was elected at a crucial time in the state's history and his constructive leadership helped chart a new direction for Mississippi." Minor wrote that "the greatest value of the Waller years" was in his creation of "harmony between blacks and whites in Mississippi's highly complex society". Journalist Adam Nossiter reflected, "Waller was not too keen on the integrationist goals of the civil rights movement, but Jim Crow disturbed his ideals of justice and fair play. As a prosecutor, and later as the governor, he bulled through old restrictions. He came along at a moment when, because of intensive black voter registration, the politics of his convictions were plausible." References Works cited 1926 births 2011 deaths United States Army personnel of the Korean War Democratic Party governors of Mississippi Southern Baptists University of Memphis alumni University of Mississippi alumni People from Lafayette County, Mississippi Politicians from Jackson, Mississippi Lawyers from Jackson, Mississippi Baptists from Mississippi Military personnel from Mississippi 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century Baptists United States Army non-commissioned officers