City mourns Lanny Hubbard
After a trying time of a declining health, former Russellville councilman Lanny Hubbard passed away last week.
Councilmembers and the community said good-bye to their friend and former councilman Sunday. Councilmembers said Hubbard, who ran for re-election in the fall but was defeated in the run-off, had never let on about the health challenges he was facing. They spoke highly of Hubbard and his many positive qualities as a person and as a councilmember.
“If Lanny told you something, you could count on it. If he said it was snowing outside on the Fourth of July, you didn’t have to go look,” Councilman Jamie Harris said. “Whatever he said, that’s the way it was.”
Councilman Gary Cummings commented on Hubbard’s humor, saying Hubbard was “naturally funny.” “He always had a comeback,” Cummings said.
Mayor David Grissom knew Hubbard from a young age. He said Hubbard was passionate about a number of municipal efforts, including road improvements and tornado shelters. Grissom said Hubbard was also proud of his Certified Municipal Official Certificate – a certification no other sitting councilman has obtained. “You go these Alabama League of Municipalities meetings, all over the state each year, and it requires so many hours of training and meetings,” Grissom said. “Lanny went to those so he could learn as much as he could about city government, how it worked and what he could do to help his district and his city.”
Councilmembers described the two-term councilman as being approachable and easy to get along with. “He had the city’s best interests at heart,” Harris said.
“You always knew where he stood,” Grissom added. “If he told you he was for it, he was for it. If he told you he was against it, he was against it.”
He was always, Cummings said, willing to listen. “You might have a little bitty something that didn’t mean nothing to nobody, but he would listen to you. He would sit down and talk to you about it and not care how big or little it was. If it was important to you, it was important to him.”
Grissom added, “He was a faithful public servant to the city.”
Hubbard was married to wife Norma and had four sons, two daughters and eight grandchildren.
