Eugene Willis was elected mayor in 1957. A Republican, he was a mortician and early president of the Stonewall Jackson Insurance Co.
It would be nearly three decades before Huntington elected another “strong mayor.” From 1957 to 1985, the city operated under the council-manager form of government in which the mayor was elected from the seven-member City Council rather than by popular vote of the people.
The post of mayor, which rotated each year, became largely ceremonial and a city manager, who was hired by council, performed the day-to-day duties that had been the job of the mayor.
