The Mississippi House of Representatives voted to recognize two new symbols: the cranberry as the state fruit and the opal as the state gemstone.
Both bills passed Monday and will go to the Senate for more work.
Rep. Jill Ford, R-Madison, said a fourth-grade civics class in Madison County proposed the cranberry legislation after they researched and discovered that cranberries are the most widely produced fruit in the state.
During a brief debate, Ford was asked by Democratic Rep. Chris Bell of Jackson if any other type of fruit was being considered for official recognition. She said no.
“I don’t like blueberries,” Bell said.
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The Mississippi House of Representatives voted to pass the bill naming the cranberry and opal as state symbols. The bill will go to the Senate for further debate.
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The blueberry proposal, House Bill 1027, passed the House 110-1. House Speaker Philip Gunn noted that Bell voted “a bitter no.”
The opal proposal is House Bill 772. It went 115-0.
“In Mississippi, we don’t have diamonds, we don’t have rubies … but we do have a lot of opal,” said Republican Rep. Becky Currie of Brookhaven.
Mississippi has a long list of official state symbols, including a state song, a fossil and a reptile, according to a list maintained by the secretary of state.
