Former President Bill Clinton to honor late Oklahoma Gov. George Nigh at memorial service

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Former President Bill Clinton is set to visit Oklahoma City this week to speak at Governor George Nigh's public memorial service.

Nigh, who was Oklahoma's longest living governor, passed away on July 30 at the age of 98-years-old.

Nigh and Clinton were governors at the same time during the 1980s, and worked together on issues impacting both Oklahoma and Arkansas. They had become friends along the way.

This will be the third time in state history that a U.S. President or Former President has attended the funeral of an Oklahoma leader. In January 1963, President John F. Kennedy attended the funeral of U.S. Senator Robert S. Kerr, and in 1971, Former President Lyndon Johnson attended the funeral of Former Governor and U.S. Senator J. Howard Edmondson.

Nigh was born in McAlester, Oklahoma, on June 9, 1927. He served as lieutenant governor of Oklahoma from 1959 to 1963, where he became the youngest state lieutenant governor in the United States at the age of 31.

He was sworn in as Oklahoma's 17th governor in 1963, but only served nine days. In 1978, Nigh was sworn in again as the state's 22nd governor, where he served his full four-year term and was reelected four years later.

Nigh later served as president of the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond from 1992 to 1997 and transformed the campus of what became the third-largest higher education institution in Oklahoma.

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Donna; daughter, Georgeann Duty, and husband Steve; his sister, Mary Cargill; granddaughters, Macy and Ayla; grandsons, Chase, Berry, and Gray Mashburn.

Nigh's memorial service is on Thursday, August 14, at 11 a.m. at the Crossings Community Church and will be open to the public.