The peanut fields of Baker and Mitchell counties stayed at the center of Charles Floyd Hatcher's public life. Hatcher, who carried southwest Georgia's farm concerns from a rural upbringing into six terms in Congress, died on September 1, 2026, in Alexandria, Virginia. He was 87.

Born in Doerun, Georgia, on July 1, 1939, Hatcher kept a lifelong connection to the farm country where he grew up. His family's Parker-Bramlett Funeral Home notice said he returned often to the peanut fields of Baker and Mitchell counties even after work took him far from home.

Hatcher served in the U.S. Air Force from 1958 to 1962, then completed a bachelor's degree at Georgia Southern College in 1965. He earned his law degree from the University of Georgia in 1969, joined the Georgia bar, and began practicing in Albany. The U.S. House Office of the Historian records that he entered the Georgia House of Representatives in 1973 and served through 1980.

Voters sent Hatcher, a Democrat, to the U.S. House in the 1980 election. From January 1981 to January 1993, he represented Georgia's 2nd Congressional District through six consecutive terms. He chaired House subcommittees covering peanuts and tobacco, energy and agriculture, and domestic marketing. The finding aid for his papers at the University of Georgia Libraries says he took particular pride in his work on the 1990 Farm Bill.

The crop he knew from home remained a defining concern. Roll Call reported that Hatcher helped preserve the federal peanut program during consideration of that farm bill. On the Small Business Committee, he also promoted wider access to federal loans for rural businesses. His proposal became part of the Small Business Administration's reauthorization.

That work continued after Congress. During the Clinton administration, Hatcher became director of the Tobacco and Peanuts Division in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency, bringing his legislative experience to the administration of crop programs.

Sanford Bishop defeated Hatcher in the 1992 Democratic primary and then succeeded him in Congress. Bishop later recalled that Hatcher offered support and counsel as he began on Capitol Hill. In announcing Hatcher's death, Rep. Sanford Bishop said, "Today, Georgia lost a true public servant and leader." Their relationship showed how service could outlast an election.

When Hatcher's wife, Krysta Harden, appeared before a Senate committee as the nominee for deputy secretary of agriculture in 2013, she called him "my biggest champion, my strongest supporter and best friend." In retirement he volunteered with Meals on Wheels and other charities and participated at Washington Street United Methodist Church in Alexandria. His wife, sons Chuck and Jon, five grandchildren, and brother Marcus were among the family members named in the funeral-home notice.

Hatcher's public record follows one durable line: Air Force service, law in Albany, representation in Atlanta and Washington, work on the 1990 Farm Bill, and administration of federal peanut programs. His congressional papers at the University of Georgia preserve twelve years of correspondence, legislation, speeches, photographs, and constituent work. The farm measures he advanced and the rural communities he served give that archive its continuing purpose.