Vicksburg radio and television personality Chris Whittington was remembered Wednesday as a talented man who was well-liked and had a passion for visual arts and the Miss Mississippi Pageant.

Whittington, 43, died Tuesday night at his home from a heart attack. He had worked for local radio stations River 101 and V105/NewsTalk1490, and produced Paul Ott’s “Listen to the Eagle” radio and television programs. He was the editor and founder of “Vicksburg Daily News” which he recently closed.

“He was a really sharp guy and also very friendly and easy to get along with,” WVBG owner Mark Jones said. “He was very easy to work with and very knowledgeable.”

William Nettle, director of the city of Vicksburg’s government access channel, TV23, said Whittington “was always a pleasure to work with. He was really knowledgeable and passionate about reporting the news and always had a different interesting angle from which he reported the news. He was a great guy to work with; a great colleague.”

“It really shocked me to get the call this morning,” longtime friend and former co-worker Tommy Parker said. “I knew he was going through some health struggles.”

Parker hired Whittington in 1999 as a DJ at River 101, later as a videographer for his company, Vicksburg Media Group.

When Whittington joined Vicksburg Media Group, Parker said, the company had the contract with the Miss Mississippi Pageant to do the postproduction work for the pageant, adding after Vicksburg Media Group disbanded, Whittington worked about 7 years with the pageant and with the late Wayne Sutter, executive secretary of the pageant.

Whittington, Parker said, was the pageant’s webmaster and videoed choreography rehearsals and made DVDs so the contestants would have something to help practice the routines during the time between the first rehearsal and the pageant.

“He would shoot all four nights of the pageant and do postproduction, and made sure every contestant and sponsor had a DVD (of the event),” Parker said, adding Whittington also shot the teen pageant for four years.

“The Paul Ott production and the pageant were his bread-and-butter projects,” Parker said.

The men started “Vicksburg Daily News” five years ago. After Parker left, Whittington continued publishing the online paper. “Health issues forced him to put it on the shelf, but he brought it back. Then several weeks ago, I guess 3-4 weeks ago, he made a public announcement he was closing,” Parker said.

“He was a tremendously talented guy. He had done voiceover work for radio and television all over the country and was a very creative individual who loved Vicksburg and Warren County and loved the Lord.

“He also did local and regional television commercials,” Parker said. “Occasionally, even to this day, I’ll be flipping around and run across a commercial, particularly car commercials that I know that’s Chris’s work.

“He was a dear friend and a very, very talented and creative individual. He died too soon.”

“When my husband passed away, Chris was very sweet to me,” said Tammy Folger Sutter. “They did a tribute to him during the pageant, and I said, ‘Oh gee, I wish I had a copy of that so I could sent it to his family,’ and the next day, he brought me several copies. He was always a really nice guy to us.

“The thing I would like to say about Chris and my late husband is they were very different in personalities, but the thing they had in common was they both had very big hearts.”