BATON ROUGE - Former Mayor-President of Baton Rouge Melvin "Kip" Holden died after a "lengthy illness," WBRZ learned Wednesday morning. He was 72 years old. 

Holden served as the city-parish's first Black mayor-president from 2005 to 2016. His tenure was bracketed by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the flood of 2016. He was succeeded by Sharon Weston Broome.  

Before becoming mayor, Holden also served on the East Baton Rouge Parish Metro Council, as well as in the State Senate and State House of Representatives. 

Holden's wife Lois released the following statement Wednesday morning:

Former East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Melvin “Kip” Holden passed away early this morning at Carpenter House following a lengthy illness. He was 72.

Holden was an attorney and a graduate of both LSU and Southern University. He served as Mayor-President from 2005 – 2016 after serving as a State Senator, State Representative and a member of the Metro-Council.

He is survived by his wife Lois, five children and two sisters.

Reactions also flooded in from officials across Baton Rouge and beyond.

Even before joining the public sector, Holden had an eye for politics as early as 1969 when the student body at Scotlandville Senior High School elected him as its president. He then went to LSU, pursuing a career in broadcast journalism, eventually working as a reporter at WXOK Radio in 1975 before working at WBRZ for two years starting in 1978.

His interest in politics truly kicked off in 1972 when he sought to become one of the delegates for the 1972 state constitutional convention, saying at the time that Louisiana needed a "constitution that will still be good 50 years from now." More than 50 years later, the state still has the same constitution despite attempts to create a new one. 

By 1980, Holden was working for the mayoral campaign of Pat Screen and as a Baton Rouge Police community-relations officer. 

After an unsuccessful run for District 63 State Representative in 1983, Holden was elected to a seat on the Metro Council in 1984, starting his tenure two years early while attending Southern University Law School. Holden later won a seat in the state legislature where he served for more than a decade. 

By 1996, Holden set his sights on the mayoral office in Baton Rouge, running and losing against incumbent Tom Ed McHugh. In 2004, he was elected as the city-parish's first African-American mayor. 

During his decade-long term, Holden guided the city-parish through the historic Hurricane Katrina, which saw the population seemingly double overnight, with Holden's priorities shifting back to building a better Baton Rouge after things got back to a new normal. 

He took a defunct pothole tax and decided the city-parish needed to completely dedicate time and resources to fixing its roads. Under Holden, voters also overwhelmingly passed the first Greenlight Plan, $2 billion worth of roadway and sewer improvements. 

Holden was resoundingly reelected in 2008 with 71 percent of the vote and again in 2012 with 60 percent. 

During the later years of his mayorship, Holden battled surrounding parish presidents in the push for a loop around Baton Rouge, a $4 billion idea at the time. He also pushed to restore downtown Baton Rouge, trying to convince voters twice to pump more than $200 million into building Audubon Alive, a riverfront entertainment development. 

Holden's plan for downtown ultimately failed, but he did help implement things like Bayou Country Superfest at Tiger Stadium, Live After Five and the Government Street Road Diet in the city-parish. He also helped bring the National Bowling Championship to Baton Rouge and create a HIV and AIDS Task Force dedicated to education and prevention. 

Even his plans for downtown came true in some form, with downtown nearly half a dozen hotels now, compared to one when he took office. 

Holden also opposed the city of St. George and backchanneled the annexation of the L'Auberge Casino, the Mall of Louisiana and other properties to retain tax dollars into the city-parish coffers. 

Just as his tenure as mayor of what he said could become "America's Next Great City" started with a natural disaster, it ended with one: the Flood of 2016.

Holden's funeral arrangements are still pending.