Funeral arrangements set for former Hoover Mayor Gary Ivey

Funeral arrangements have been set for former Hoover Mayor Gary Ivey, who died in his home in Chilton County at the age of 63 on Monday.

Visitation will be held from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, at the Ellison Memorial Funeral Home at 1709 Lay Dam Road in Clanton, with a funeral following at 2 p.m.

Ivey’s body then will be laid to rest at Southern Heritage Cemetery in Pelham.

Current Mayor Frank Brocato announced the news of Ivey’s death during Tuesday night’s Hoover City Council meeting. Chilton County Coroner Aaron Ellison today said Ivey died of natural causes in his home just outside of Clanton.

Ivey served as mayor of Hoover from September 2011 to November 2016. Prior to that, he served seven years as president of the Hoover City Council and eight years on the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission.

He first was appointed mayor after his predecessor, Tony Petelos, resigned the mayor’s job to become Jefferson County’s manager. Ivey ran unopposed for mayor in 2012 and then lost a re-election bid to Brocato in 2016.

Since then, he sold his Crest Cadillac dealership in Hoover and moved to Chilton County. Read more about what people had to say about Ivey's service to the city here.

This post was updated with Ivey's cause of death, per the Chilton County coroner, at 12:12 p.m.