Roscoe Dixon, a Memphis Democrat who was prominent in state politics for more than a decade before his 2006 conviction in an FBI corruption sting, and who later advocated for restoration of voting rights, died at a local hospital Thursday. He was 71.
Dixon s sister confirmed his death, which was attributed to a lengthy, undisclosed illness.
Former mayor of Shelby County and then Memphis, A C Wharton, who had been friends with Dixon since 1973 and who had hired him at the county after Dixon resigned his state senate seat in 2005, said he personified public service. And it was Dixon who borrowed a pickup truck to help the Whartons move to Memphis in 1973, Wharton said.