Mayor Beverly Whaling, who was in charge of the 500-populated town called Clay, quit on Tuesday. She made the controversial comment on a Facebook post written by Pamela Ramsey Taylor, the director of Clay County Development Corp, who was singing the praise of the shift from Obama to Donald Trump’s ex-model wife, Melina as the new First Lady.
According to Charleston's WSAZ TV, she wrote: "It will be refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified first lady back in the White House. I'm tired of seeing an ape in heels."
Whaling responded: "Just made my day Pam."
The post was quickly deleted, but the racist comments were soon all over social media. The backlash soon followed with an online petition of some 150,000 signatures demanding Mayor Whaling to step down from office.
Whaling apologised in a statement sent to The Washington Post. She insisted that her comment was not intended to be racist. "I was referring to my day being made for change in the White House! I am truly sorry for any hard feeling this may have caused!" she said in her statement to the US newspaper.
Taylor was also forced to resign her position, according to this morning's news reports.