Mississippi County’s top executive dies at 57

Carney remembered as having big heart

Mississippi County Judge Randall Lyn Carney, who in his five years as the county’s leader helped attract a $1.3 billion steel company and suggested consolidating the county’s two courthouses to save costs, died Wednesday.

Carney, 57, died about 8 a.m. after complications from surgery at a Memphis hospital. He had suffered from lung cancer and, although he had announced he was cancer-free in 2014, the cancer returned.

“He was a wonderful person,” said Terri Brassfield, Carney’s assistant. “We are devastated.”

Carney was elected county judge in 2011 and was re-elected twice to the two-year term. His current term expires Dec. 31, 2018.

“Randy’s greatest asset and his greatest problem was the size of his heart,” Justice of the Peace Michael White said. “He wanted to help everybody regardless of who they were.”

“He’d take it on the chin sometimes, but he knew his job and his responsibilities,” White said.

During his tenure, Carney oversaw the development of Big River Steel, an Osceola steel mill that was the largest economic development project in Arkansas.

“That definitely was his biggest achievement,” White said.

Carney also drew some criticism last year when he suggested enacting a countywide sales tax to fund construction of a new courthouse in Blytheville. Mississippi County is one of 10 Arkansas counties with two county seats, and Carney said operating both courthouses, each more than 100 years old, was costly.

Residents in Osceola protested the plan and blocked the election in court.

“I can’t always say we always agreed on everything, but Randy was always fair,” White said.

Brassfield, who was appointed to serve as interim county judge, said Carney didn’t care about the divisiveness of the county.

“He sincerely cared about all the citizens of our county,” she said. “He wanted to bridge them together.”

Services for Carney will be Saturday at Osceola First Baptist Church.

Mississippi County Quorum Court members will meet next week and appoint someone to finish Carney’s term, White said.

“I think I’d sum up Randy’s term with one word: Prosperity,” White said. “He brought Big Steel in, and he tried to bring Mississippi County together. It made it a pleasure to work with him with his positive-minded ways.”