Madison Co. commissioners vote to ask for historians’ resignation

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — Commissioners voted during their Friday meeting to ask the Madison County historian for her resignation.

According to an incident report, Linda Higgins was led out of a meeting of the Tennessee Historical Commission earlier this week at the University of Memphis Lambuth.

Higgins got into a verbal altercation with several other board members and started waving her hands in Madison County Mayor Jimmy Harris’ wife’s face, according to a police report.

Seventeen commissioners voted for Higgins’ resignation, three voted no, one passed and four weren’t there to vote.

“I think it was an embarrassment on our county. I think it was an embarrassment to the state of Tennessee,” Mayor Jimmy Harris said.

“Something is wrong here,” Commissioner Luther t. Mercer said of Friday’s vote. “You know that vote was incorrect. Shouldn’t have happened.”

“The vote came out the way it did because of her own action,” Commissioner Gary Deaton said.

The governor appointed Higgins as a member of the Tennessee Historical Commission.