Irvin T. “Butch” Callery, the former mayor of both Covington and Villa Hills, died on Sunday. He was 83.
Callery also served on the Covington Board of Commissioners. He served on the Covington City Commission from 1980 to 2000. He served as the Covington mayor from 2001 to 2008 and then as the mayor of Villa Hills from 2015 through 2018.
“With 29 years in office in Covington, he is thought to have been the longest-serving elected official in the city’s history,” according to an announcement from the City of Covington. “He is also one of the few people – if not the only person – to have served as mayor of two different cities in Northern Kentucky. He was named the ‘Elected Official of the Year’ in 2017 by the Kentucky League of Cities.”
He was also a member of the NKY Sports Hall of Fame and served as the coach for several local baseball and softball teams.
“Butch first entered politics as a fierce advocate for the Latonia neighborhood and wound up giving decades of his life to the residents of this community,” Mayor Joe Meyer said in the annoucement. “His love for Covington was rivaled only by his love for his wife, Joyce, to whom he was married for almost 52 years, and perhaps to the Cincinnati Reds.”
A funeral service will be held on Thursday at Connely Brothers Funeral Home in Latonia. Learn more and read his full obituary at the funeral home’s dedicated webpage.