On Thursday, August 29, officials dedicated a section of State Route 15 in Pontotoc as “Fred Wicker Boulevard.”

Members of the Wicker family, Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) leadership, and other elected officials were present at the dedication ceremony and official unveiling of the sign, held just off State Route 15, across the street from the Wicker family home.

Judge Thomas Frederick (Fred) Wicker, Senator Roger Wicker's father, made his home on Highway 15 in Pontotoc for 74 years - from 1948 to the time of his death in 2022. He was city attorney for 8 years, county prosecutor for 12 years, state senator for 3 years, and Circuit Judge for the 1st Judicial District from 1970 to 1990.

As a state senator, he championed public education and highways. He was instrumental in developing Pontotoc’s first industrial park along Highway 15 North. As a State Senator in 1968, he was the first legislator to advocate to four-lane Highway 15 as a corridor from the Tennessee line to the Gulf Coast – successfully getting an amendment passed for that project. Decades later, that dream is now gradually coming to reality, with the current Highway 15 4-lane phase being constructed in Pontotoc and Union Counties.