Oxford Mourns Loss of its Emergency Management Director Jimmy Allgood

By Alyssa Schnugg

News editor

alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

Oxford Emergency Management Director Jimmy Allgood died Friday night from an apparent heart attack.

Allgood, 60, served as the city’s emergency management director since 2008, “guiding “Oxford through a pandemic with wisdom and a steady hand,” said Oxford Mayor Robyn Tannehill in a statement on Facebook.

“I simply cannot put into words at this moment what Jimmy meant to his family, his friends and entire community,” she wrote. “Jimmy never met a problem he couldn’t solve. He loved, protected and served Oxford, his family and friends with a loyalty that is unmatched. There was no friend who knew how to love his city and his coworkers more. Everyone should be so blessed to have a friend like Jimmy.”

Prior to working for the city, he served as Lafayette County’s emergency management director.

On her Facebook page, Allgood’s wife, Linda said Allgood died from a heart attack.

When Allgood served as a volunteer firefighter with the Lafayette County Fire Department, Oxford portrait artist Jason Bouldin won the Grand prize at The Portrait Society of America’s conference held in Philadelphia in April 2002 for a portrait he did of Allgood that hangs in the Mississippi Museum of Art.

In April 2020, Allgood was named an “Oxford Hero” by the Ole Miss Pix website. In an interview for Ole Miss Pix, Allgood said his main concern was keeping the community healthy and safe during the pandemic.

“This is a team effort, and we will not win this as individuals but as a community that is not only a team, but a family. We all pull together, or we all fall apart. The city, county, and university are all part of one big family, and working together as a team, we keep that family together and safe. With hope and the proper precautions, we will hopefully soon return to more normal, happy and safe days,” Allgood told Ole Miss Pix in April 2020.