Chip Pickering

Chip Pickering was born in Laurel, Mississippi, to attorney Charles W. Pickering. He is a cousin of Stacey Pickering, former State Auditor of Mississippi, Mississippi State Senator, and executive director of the Mississippi Veterans Affairs Board. Pickering graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Mississippi where he was a legacy member of the Eta chapter of Sigma Chi. He went on to receive a Master of Business Administration from Baylor University in 1989. ==Career==

Early years Pickering served as a Southern Baptist missionary in Hungary, after the Hungarian government ceased its persecution of religious believers. In 1989, President George H. W. Bush appointed Pickering as a Department of Agriculture liaison to the former European Communist countries. Pickering served as a staff member of Senator Trent Lott between 1992 and 1996. After a year at the Senate Commerce Committee, Pickering ran for Congress. In 2002, Pickering contributed to legislation included in the 2002 Farm Bill, which doubled the funding for the conservation reserve, the wetland reserve programs, and other conservation initiatives administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pickering served as George W. Bush's co-chairman for Mississippi in Bush's presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004. From 2003 to 2007, Pickering served as vice-chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. In 2008, Pickering, along with Bennie Thompson, received Lewis-Houghton Leadership Award. In January 2009, Pickering retired from the House of Representatives. In April 2023, the archives of Chip Pickering and Charles W. Pickering were donated to the Mississippi Political Collections, located at Mississippi State University's Mitchell Memorial Library, by them. ==Personal life==

Pickering and his former wife, Leisha, have five sons. Chip Pickering filed for divorce in June 2008. On July 16, 2009, Pickering's estranged wife filed a complaint in Hinds County (Mississippi) Circuit Court under Mississippi's alienation of affection law, alleging that Pickering and his college sweetheart Elizabeth Creekmore Byrd had a long-standing adulterous extramarital relationship during his congressional career in Washington, D.C. Creekmore Byrd is a member of Mississippi's Creekmore family that founded of the Cellular South telephone company. According to Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast, "In the end, Pickering chose his mistress over his congressional career and his wife." Pickering's family had a close relationship with Antonin Scalia. ==References==