By By William F. West / community editor
Aug. 14, 2002
U.S. Rep. Chip Pickering's 63-year-old mother was undergoing open heart surgery today after suffering a heart attack on her son's 39th birthday.
Margaret Ann Pickering had a "mild" heart attack Saturday at home in Jones County, but suffered no permanent damage, said Henry Barbour, spokesman for Pickering's re-election campaign.
She was taken to an undisclosed hospital.
Margaret Ann Pickering is the wife of U.S. District Judge Charles Pickering. They have four grown children and a number of grandchildren. Last week, she went to Jackson to hear President Bush's speech in support of her son's re-election.
Barbour said Chip Pickering was with his mother Tuesday and plans to be at the hospital today as she undergoes surgery.
Carol Mabry, an assistant in Pickering's Meridian office, has known Margaret Ann Pickering for eight years.
Betty Lou Jones, chairman of Lauderdale County Republican Women, agreed.
Chip Pickering, a Republican who represents the 3rd Congressional District, and Ronnie Shows, the Democratic 4th District representative, are competing for the right to represent a newly re-drawn 3rd District.
Shows' 77-year-old father, Clifford, has also been ill. He remained today in the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Jackson, where he has been hospitalized for more than a week following lung surgery.
Shows' campaign spokesman, Troy Colbert, said Clifford Shows underwent surgery Friday to patch a leaking artery. Clifford Shows also suffered a heart attack in recent days, Colbert said.
Pickering and Shows, the two junior members of Mississippi's congressional delegation, were thrown together in a new district after sluggish population growth cost the state one of its five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The general election is Nov. 5.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.