Former state Rep. Wayne Snow Jr. of Chickamauga died Tuesday, Sept. 28, of complications from diabetes when a blod clot caused a heart attack after he underwent surgery. He was 68.

Snow began his public career as Chickamauga’s city attorney in the 1960s. He climbed the political ladder to serve in the state House of Representatives from 1963 to 1983. Gov. Joe Frank Harris appointed him to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles, where he served as chairman from 1985 to 1993.

“I served with him a short time,” former state Sen. Waymond “Sonny” Huggins, D-LaFayette, said. “When I was in the Senate, before he (Snow) left to go to pardons and paroles, we got along very well. He was easy to work with.”

During his tenure as county commissioner, Roy Parrish Jr. worked closely with the late representative.

“We would not have a bypass around the Chickamauga (Battlefield) park if not for Wayne Snow,” Parrish said. “I don’t know how many trips we made to Washington D.C. in regard to that road.”

Snow worked with former state Sen. Billy Shaw Abney, also deceased, to establish the water treatment plant in Chickamauga, Parrish said.

“They were so good for Walker County,” he said. “I don’t know how we would be where we are today without them.”

Snow also operated the family's nursery, Wayne Snow Nursery, in Chickamauga. Snow’s younger brother and current state Rep. Mike Snow, D-Chickamauga, operates the business now