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→Death and legacy
==Death and legacy==
==Death and legacy==
Whitt died at Oschner Hospital. Hundreds attended his funeral service held on August 20, 2008, at the Alexandria Riverfront Center. News of his death was carried in [[newspaper]]s and on [[television]] stations not only throughout Louisiana but in other states.<ref>"Alexandria Zoo director Les Whitt dies, age 56," ''Fort Mill (South Carolina) Times,'' August 20, 2008: http://www.fortmilltimes.com/124/story/262466.html</ref> Burial followed at Greenlawn Cemetery in Natchez. Survivors included his wife of thirty-four years, the former Lee Ann Hollingsworth (born December 27, 1952), then the educational curator of the zoo who is originally from Meadville in Franklin County in southwestern Mississippi; two daughters, Sarah Mathews (born 1978) and Hanna Lee Whitt (born 1979), all of Alexandria, and two brothers, James M. Whitt of Natchez and John V. Whitt, Jr., of Dauphin Island, [[Alabama]].<ref name=obit/>
Whitt died at Oschner Hospital. Hundreds attended his funeral service held on August 20, 2008, at the Alexandria Riverfront Center. News of his death was carried in [[newspaper]]s and on [[television]] stations not only throughout Louisiana but in other states.<ref>"Alexandria Zoo director Les Whitt dies, age 56," ''Fort Mill (South Carolina) Times,'' August 20, 2008: http://www.fortmilltimes.com/124/story/262466.html</ref> Burial followed at Greenlawn Cemetery in Natchez. Survivors included his wife of thirty-four years, the former Lee Ann Hollingsworth (born December 27, 1952), then the educational curator of the zoo who is originally from Meadville in Franklin County in southwestern Mississippi; two daughters, Sarah Mathews Salley (born 1978) and Hanna Lee Whitt (born 1979), all of Alexandria, and two brothers, James M. Whitt of Natchez and John V. Whitt, Jr., of Dauphin Island, [[Alabama]].<ref name=obit/>
Mark Rose, a former Alexandria public works director who serves as vice president of design at Busch Gardens in [[Tampa]], [[Florida]], eulogized Whitt at the funeral. Rose said that Whitt as a very young man had the goal of transforming the Alexandria zoo into a top-notch facility. "He decided that he would devote his life to Alexandria and that zoo and turn it around and make it something special – and he did," Rose recalled.<ref>"Les Whitt eulogized — 'Alexandria lost its heart,'" ''Alexandria Daily Town Talk,'' August 20, 2008, p. 1.
Mark Rose, a former Alexandria public works director who serves as vice president of design at Busch Gardens in [[Tampa]], [[Florida]], eulogized Whitt at the funeral. Rose said that Whitt as a very young man had the goal of transforming the Alexandria zoo into a top-notch facility. "He decided that he would devote his life to Alexandria and that zoo and turn it around and make it something special – and he did," Rose recalled.<ref>"Les Whitt eulogized — 'Alexandria lost its heart,'" ''Alexandria Daily Town Talk,'' August 20, 2008, p. 1.