Charles Tighe, an attorney who served as North Dakota's lieutenant governor in the mid-1960s, has died. He was 77.

Tighe's funeral is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck, said Ross Mushik, of Mandan, Tighe's nephew. Tighe suffered from Parkinson's disease, an illness that affects the nervous system. He died Monday at the Baptist Home in Bismarck, where he had lived for a number of years.

Tighe (pronounced TY) was the only Democrat among four lieutenant governors who served during Democrat Bill Guy's administration, which ran from 1961 to 1972. At the time, North Dakota voters chose the governor and lieutenant governor separately; the two offices were not elected jointly until 1976.

When Guy was first elected in 1960, state officials were elected to two-year terms. The terms were lengthened to four years in 1964, when Tighe was elected lieutenant governor, defeating incumbent Republican Frank Wenstrom, of Williston.

Tighe was born in Fargo, where his father was a longtime high school principal and unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic endorsement for governor in 1938. Charles Tighe earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Dakota, and served in the Navy during World War II.

He worked as a prosecutor in McKenzie County and Burleigh County before establishing a private law practice in Bismarck. Tighe ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in 1962, losing to Republican Helgi Johanneson.

Tighe had served as a Guy appointee on the state Economic Development Commission for four years before he was elected lieutenant governor. At the time, the lieutenant governor's position was part-time, and Tighe continued his private law practice in Bismarck.

Republican Richard Larsen, a Grand Forks state senator, defeated Tighe for re-election in 1968.