Bo Callaway Day / funeral set for Wednesday

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) Arrangements have been made for family and friends to say farewell to former Georgia congressman Bo Callaway.

The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reports a funeral Mass will be held Wednesday in Pine Mountain for Callaway, who also served as Army secretary and helped found Callaway Gardens. He died Saturday at age 86 at an assisted-living facility in Columbus from complications from a brain hemorrhage he suffered about two years ago.

Callaway won election to the U.S. House in 1964, becoming Georgia's first Republican congressman since reconstruction. He was appointed Army secretary in 1973.

The funeral Mass will be held at Christ the King Catholic Church in Pine Mountain, where Callaway's family established Callaway Gardens as a 6,500-acre garden and resort.

Additionally, Governor Nathan Deal today announced that he will proclaim Wednesday as Howard "Bo" Callaway Day in Georgia and he has ordered flags flown at half-staff throughout the state that day.

"Few individuals throughout our history can match the legacy that Bo Callaway left on Georgia politics," Deal said. "Bo blazed a trail that led to the dramatic growth of the Georgia GOP, which went from virtually nonexistent when he ran for governor to holding every statewide elected office today. Bo stood up for what he believed in even when the odds and the political system were stacked against him. Georgians are all the better for it. Sandra and I send our deepest sympathies to the Callaway family."

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)