Former state Sen. Priscilla Dunn, a Democrat from Birmingham who spent more than two decades in the Legislature, died on Tuesday following a long, undisclosed illness. She was 80.
Dunn represented Senate District 19 from 2009 to 2022. She was absent for much of her last quadrennium due to health-related reasons and did not seek reelection. She served in the Alabama House from 1998 to 2009.
Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Birmingham, served with Dunn in the House and Dunn beat her in the 2009 special Democrat primary runoff for the Senate.
“I learned so much from her, even in defeat,” Coleman told Alabama Daily News. “… She is the epitome of strength, quiet strength, but also grace and compassion for others.”
Coleman won the seat in 2022 after Dunn left the Legislature.
Prior to her legislative service, Dunn was an educator and school principal. Dunn and her husband, Grover Dunn, often paid for items for students in need long after she left education, Coleman said.
Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, served with Dunn and said he’ll remember her for her passion for education and women’s issues.
“You could also count on her to come to the mic and express what she felt on those issues,” Singleton said. “She was a force within herself and over the number of years she served, she had a lot of respect from across the aisle. I think both sides of the aisle respected her opinions.
“Even in her later years, when she started to slow down just a little bit, she was still respected and people gave deference to her on those issues that she was very, very adamant about.”
She is survived by her husband and their daughter, Jefferson County Circuit Clerk Karen Dunn Burks.
U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, posted on Twitter about Dunn.
“She was a grand dame whose footsteps we Black women elected officials are blessed to have followed,” Sewell said.
Senate President Pro Tem Greg Reed, R-Jasper, said Dunn served her district with “distinction and honor.”
“… I will remember her most for the kindness and grace she showed her constituents and colleagues,” Reed said. “When I entered the Alabama Senate as a freshman member back in 2011, Senator Dunn was one of the first members to welcome me. She was a good friend to me, and I enjoyed serving with her on the Jefferson County delegation for many years. Our prayers are with her family and friends as they grieve her loss.”
Dunn’s funeral is being planned for Saturday at Shady Grove Baptist Church in Bessemer.