CHARLESTON, W.Va. –Flags are set to be lowered to half-staff Tuesday beginning at noon at the Capitol and state facilities throughout the state to commemorate the life and service of former senator and state agriculture secretary Walt Helmick.

Governor Patrick Morrisey made the order Monday afternoon. Flags will be flown at half-staff until sunset on the day of internment.

Helmick, 81, passed away after a battle with cancer.

“I am saddened by the passing of Walt Helmick, who spent many years of his life serving our state,” Morrisey said in a news release Monday. “Walt was a dedicated public servant whose decades of leadership, from serving his local community in Pocahontas County to his long tenure in the West Virginia State Senate, and later as out state’s Commissioner of Agriculture,

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