W.H. “Shag” Pyron, who served 12 years as highway commissioner from south Mississippi, has died. He was 79.

Pyron died Sunday at Hardy Wilson Memorial Hospital in Hazlehurst. His family did not release a cause of death, according to officials with Stringer Family Funeral Services.

Services are at 2 p.m. Tuesday at Hazlehurst United Methodist Church with burial at Felder’s Cemetery in Summit.

Pyron was a high school football coach and worked for Stribling Puckett when he was elected highway commissioner, serving from 1967-79. He joined his sons in the timber business and ran the Brookhaven office of Copiah Forest Products Inc.

Survivors include his wife, Carlene Freiler Pyron; three sons; and eight grandchildren.