Panolian Advertising Director Bob Boggan died at 6 a.m. this morning after a brief illness. He was 57.

Boggan had joined the newspaper staff in 2005. He had formerly published a shopper in Batesville and had been employed in radio and television and advertising venues during a long career.

Boggan’s survivors include his wife of 31 years, Teresa; three daughters, Jessica Pressgrove of Olive Branch, Erica Wilson of Ocean Springs, and Brittany Boggan of Tupelo; two grandchildren, his father, W. E. Boggan of Nesbit, and mother- and father-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Gatewood of Pope.

The funeral will be Saturday at 10 a.m. at Pope Baptist Church. Visitation will be Friday evening from 5 to 8 p.m. at Wells Funeral Home which has charge of arrangements.

“We’ve watched, broken-hearted, as a relentless, aggressive cancer claimed our friend during these last five months,” Panolian Publisher John Howell said. “Yet in the end we’ve heard a wonderful love story, about how he spent these last days reassuring his wife and daughters that he was ready to go and that they were going to be fine.

“Bob liked to joke about all the women in his life — ‘Teresa and the girls,’ he would say. “He always acted like he was complaining about all the decisions in his life being made for him, but it was obvious to anyone that he loved it, that he loved being the center of all that loving attention. And he loved giving it back.

“And in the end, Bob made his final decisions, instructing Teresa, as they arrived back for what for what he knew better than they would be his last trip to the hospital, to take no extraordinary measures and reassuring them that they were going to be all right.”

Bob Boggan, 1952-2009

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