Hundreds pack Tupelo church for U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee’s funeral

U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-Miss) tells a story in this Associated Press file photo. Nunnelee died Friday at the age of 56. Rogelio V. Solis/The Associated Press
U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-Miss) tells a story in this  Associated Press file photo. Nunnelee died Friday at the age of 56. Rogelio V. Solis/The Associated Press
U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-Miss) tells a story in this
Associated Press file photo. Nunnelee died Friday at the age of 56.
Rogelio V. Solis/The Associated Press

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — Friends, family and political colleagues are remembering U.S. Rep. Alan Nunnelee as a dedicated family man and public servant.

Hundreds of people packed the sanctuary of Calvary Baptist Church in Tupelo for Nunnelee’s funeral Monday.

The third-term Republican congressman died of an inoperable brain tumor Friday. He was 56.

Nunnelee was elected to Congress in a Republican wave in 2010.

He was unable to work in Washington for most of the last half of 2014 because of health problems. He had a stroke in June while surgeons were removing a cancerous tumor from his brain. Doctors found another tumor in January and said it was inoperable.

Nunnelee served 15 years in the Mississippi Senate before he was elected to Congress.