Listed here are the individuals known to have previously served as mayor of Valdosta. In the city’s 152 years some records have been lost. Due to a fire in the 1870s it is unknown who was mayor of the city from 1870-1871 and from 1873-1875. It is also unclear who held the office in some of the earliest years of the community’s existence from 1864 to 1868.
Click on a photo to view a larger image and see a short biography of the mayor.
- Mayor R.T. Roberds
- Rufus Wiley Phillips (1861-1863)
- Henry Burroughs (H.B.) Holliday
- R.T. Middleton (1875-1876)
- J.O. Varnedoe (1877-1878)
- I.N. Davis (1880-1881)
- J.W. Wells (1881-1882)
- J.M. Wilkinson (1882-1885)
- B.F. Whittington (1885-1886)
- N.A. Williams (1886-1887)
- W.L. Thomas (1887-1891)
- W.H. Griffin (1892-1895)
- E.L. Moore (1892-1893)
- J.G. Cranford (1895-1897)
- O.M. Smith (1897-1898)
- A.H. Smith (1898-1899)
- Charles Bunyon Peeples (1899-1900)
- M.A. Briggs (1904-1906)
- J.T. Roberts (1906-1914)
- T.B. Converse, Jr. (1914-1918)
- B.H. Jones (1918-1920)
- Walter D. Peeples (1920-1926)
- Wilburn H. McKey (1926-1930)
- Philip C. Pendleton (1930-1932)
- John Robert Dasher (1930)
- J.D. Ashley (1934-1944)
- Frank Darnell Rose (1944-1946)
- H.B Edwards, Sr. (1946-1948)
- J.E. ‘Ed’ Mathis (1948-1952)
- John Bray Gidden (1952-1956)
- Emory P. Bass (1956-1958)
- A.J. Strickland III (1958-1960)
- Maxwell Oliver (1960-64)
- Richard M. Stewart (1964-1966)
- James M. Beck (1966-1970; 72-74)
- Aubrey J. Stump (1970-1972)
- Gil A. Harbin (1974-1980)
- Ernest J. Nijem (1980-1986)
- Walter Gillican (Gill) Autrey Jr. (1986-1988)
- James H. Rainwater (1988-2003)
- John Fretti (2003-2011)