Deaths

Deaths

Ralph David Abernathy, 64, minister, leader in the civilrights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, cofounder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), 12 March 1992.

Bella Savitsky Abzug, 77, outspoken feminist and Democratic representative from New York (1971-1977); first Jewish woman in Congress; known also for her outstanding collection of sometimes-outlandish hats, 31 March 1998.

Spiro Theodore Agnew, 77, Republican governor of Maryland (1967-1969) and vice president of the United States (1969-1973); resigned because he was facing bribery and tax evasion charges and eventually pleaded "no contest" to tax evasion, 17 September 1996.

Leslie "Les" Aspin Jr., 56, Democratic representative from Wisconsin (1971-1993) and Secretary of Defense (1993-1994), 21 May 1995.

Harvey Leroy "Lee" Atwater, 40, chairman of the Republican National Committee (1988-1990); infamous for designing negative political campaigns, especially the 1988 "Willie Horton" campaign against Democratic presidential nominee Massachusetts governor Michael Stanley Dukakis, 29 March 1991.

Daisy Lee (Gatson) Bates, 85, African American civil rights activist, who in 1957, at considerable risk to her own safety, supported and nurtured the nine African American students who integrated Little Rock (Arkansas) Central High School, 4 November 1999.

Terrei Howard "Ted" Bell, 74, Secretary of Education (1981-1985), appointed by President Ronald Reagan to phase out the Department of Education, but Bell changed his mind and, despite Reagan's objections, oversaw the writing and issuing of a report on schools (A Nation at Risk, 1987) calling for more help for education, 22 June 1996.

Ezra Taft Benson, 94, Secretary of Agriculture (1953-1961), known for his outspoken and extremely conservative views; president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (1985-1994), 30 May 1994.

Rose Elizabeth Bird, 63, first female justice and chief justice of the California Supreme Court (1977-1986), controversial because of her views and decisions in opposition to the death penalty, 4 December 1999.

Harry Andrew Blackmun, 90, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1970-1994) who wrote the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade (1973), 4 March 1999.

Salvatore "Sonny" Bono, 62, Republican representative from California (1995-1998), best known for his singing and acting partnership Sonny and Cher, 5 January 1998.

Thomas Bradley, 80, Democratic mayor of Los Angeles (1973-1993), first African American to be elected to the Los Angeles city council and mayorship, 29 September 1998.

William Joseph Brennan Jr., 91, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1956-1990), wrote Baker v. Carr (1962) decision paving the way for reapportionment of state legislatures; New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) reinforcing freedom of the press; and Texas v. Johnson (1989) affirming that burning the U.S. flag is political expression protected by the First Amendment. He was a critical part of the 1950s and 1960s liberal majority on the Court that ushered in a new era for civil rights and civil liberties, 24 July 1997.

Alfred Bryant Renton "Harry" Bridges, 88, Australian-born radical labor leader. He came to the United States in 1920 and later became a naturalized citizen; organized labor strikes on the West coast among longshoremen and maritime workers; was ordered deported several times, but he won court battles to stay in the United States; in 1950 he was convicted of perjury for denying Communist Party membership in his oath of naturalization and was sentenced to seven years in prison, but that too was overturned on appeal, 30 March 1990.

Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, 90, Democratic Governor of California (1959-1966); lost bid for a third term to Ronald Reagan (1966); father of Edmund. B"Jerry" (Governor Moonbeam) Brown Jr., 16 February 1996.

Ronald H. Brown, first African American chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC, 1989—1992); Secretary of Commerce (1993-1996), 3 April 1996.

McGeorge Bundy, 77, National Security Adviser to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson (1961-1966), one of the architects of increasing U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam; president of the Ford Foundation (1966-1979), 16 September 1996.

Warren Earl Burger, 88, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1969-1986), wrote the decision in United States v. Nixon (1974) establishing that claims of executive privilege do not shield presidents from judicial subpoenas, leading to the release of Nixon's tapes and ultimately to his resignation from the presidency, 25 June 1995.

Anthony Joseph Celebrezze, 88, mayor of Cleveland, Ohio (1953-1962); first ethnically Italian cabinet member as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1962-1965), 29 October 1998.

John Hubbard Chafee, 76, Republican governor (1963-1969) of, and senator (1976-1999) from, Rhode Island; Secretary of the Navy (1969-1972), 24 October 1999.

Lawton Mainor Chiles Jr., 68, Democratic senator (1971-1989) from, and governor (1991-1998) of, Florida, 12 December 1998.

Clark McAdams Clifford, 91, lawyer and adviser to Democratic presidents, including Harry S Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter; helped draft the National Security Act of 1947, which set up U.S. institutional structure in foreign affairs; and, while Secretary of Defense (1968-1969), he convinced Johnson that the war in Vietnam was unwinnable, leading to Johnson's decision not to run for another term, 10 October 1998.

William Egar Colby, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent and CIA director (1973-1976) cooperated with congressional investigations leading to the publicizing of intelligence operations and instituted reforms, 27 April 1996.

John Bowden Connally Jr., 76, Democratic governor of Texas (1963-1969); wounded while riding in the same car in which President John F. Kennedy was assassinated; switched to the Republican Party and served as President Richard M. Nixon's Secretary of Treasury (1971-1972); unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for president (1980), 15 June 1993.

John Sherman Cooper, 89, Republican senator from Kentucky (1946-1949, 1952-1955, 1956-1973); ambassador to India (1955-1956) and East Germany (1974-1976); member of the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; and was also one of the few Republican senators identified as opposing the war in Vietnam, 21 February 1991.

Charles Coles Diggs Jr., 75, Democratic representative from Michigan (1955-1980); founder and first chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (1969—1971); first victim of Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich's (R-Georgia) strategy to target congressional Democrats on ethics issues in order to discredit them and help elect Republicans. Diggs was convicted (1978) of taking kickbacks from employees on his congressional office payroll, was censured (1979), resigned (1980), and was imprisoned for seven months (1980-1981), 24 August 1998.

John Daniel Ehrlichman, 73, chief domestic adviser to President Richard M. Nixon (1969-1973); authorized covert operations designed to discredit Dr. Daniel J. Ellsberg, who had delivered the Pentagon Papers (1971) to the press; was part of the Watergate coverup; resigned at Nixon's request in 1973, and was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury. After his release from prison he wrote mildly interesting and fairly successful political novels, 14 February 1999.

Orval Eugene Faubus, 84, Democratic segregationist governor of Arkansas (1955-1967); mobilized the Arkansas National Guard to prevent nine African American students from attending Little Rock Central High School in 1957, and in doing so set off a national furor that increased nationwide support for integration, 14 December 1994.

Millicent Hammond Fenwick, 81, Republican representative from New Jersey (1975-1983); ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture (1983-1987); reputed to have inspired the character Lacey Davenport in the comic strip "Doonesbury," 16 December 1992.

Robert H. Finch, 70, campaign manager for Richard M. Nixon's unsuccessful 1960 presidential campaign, lieutenant governor of California (1966-1969); and Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (1.969—1970), 10 October 1995.

Vincent Walker Foster Jr., 48, White House deputy counsel for President Bill Clinton and former Arkansas law partner of Hillary Rodham Clinton; oversaw the handling of the Whitewater investigation; his suicide prompted intensified investigations both into his death and the Whitewater scandal, 20 July 1993.

James William Fulbright, 89, Democratic representative (1943-1945) and senator (1945-1962, 1968-1974) from Arkansas; chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee (1959-1974); used committee hearings to question U.S. policy in Vietnam, 9 February 1995.

Arthur J. Goldberg, 81, Secretary of Labor 1961-1962); associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1962-1965); wrote the Escobedo v. Illinois (1964) decision affirming that confessions by defendants who were deprived of counsel cannot be used in court; and ambassador to the United Nations (1965-1968), 19 January 1990.

Barry Morris Goldwater, 89, Republican senator from Arizona (1953-1965, 1969-1987); candidate for president in 1964; credited with being the godfather to the conservative political movement of the late twentieth century, although in his later years he disavowed some conservative positions and tactics. His acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in 1964 contained the famous phrase: "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice … moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue," 29 May 1998.

Albert Arnold Gore Sr., 90, Democratic representative (1945-1953) and senator (1953-1971) from Tennessee; early opponent of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War; father of Vice President Albert Arnold Gore Jr., 5 December 1998.

Harry Robbins "Bob" Haldeman, 66, chief of staff to President Richard M. Nixon until he was forced to resign, partly to protect the president, in the wake of the Watergate scandals, 12 November 1993.

Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa, 85, educator, linguist, and semanticist; senator from California (1977-1983); first came to the public's notice when he stood up in opposition to student demonstrators while president of San Francisco State College (1968-1973), 27 February 1992.

Alger Hiss, 92, State Department official and adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt; accused in 1948 by Whittaker Chambers, in testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, of being a communist spy, which he denied; was convicted and served five years in prison for perjury; spent the rest of his life asserting his innocence, 15 November 1996.

Roman Lee Hruska Sr., 94, Republican representative (1953-1954) and senator (1954-1976) from Nebraska; well known for trying to defend a Richard M. Nixon nominee to the Supreme Court who some said was mediocre, arguing the Court could use a little mediocrity, 25 April 1999.

Harold Everett Hughes, 74, Democratic governor (1963-1969) of, and senator (1969-1975) from, Iowa; unsuccessful candidate for presidential nomination (1972), 23 October 1996.

Richard Howard "Dick" Ichord II, 66, representative from Missouri (1961-1981); last chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee (House Internal Security Committee after 1969), 25 December 1992.

Randolph Jennings, 96, Democratic representative (1933-1947) and senator (1958-1984) from West Virginia; drafted and secured passage of the 26th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, securing the right to vote for eighteen-to twenty-year-old citizens, 8 May 1998.

William Pat Jennings, 74, Democratic representative from Virginia (1955-1967), 2 August 1994.

Barbara Charline Jordan, 59, Democratic representative from Texas (1973-1979); first African American woman elected to Congress from the South, as well as to give the keynote at the Democratic National Convention (1976); was first noticed nationally because of her service on the Judiciary Committee considering the impeachment of Richard M. Nixon (1974), 17 January 1996.

Meir (Martin David) Kahane, 58, rabbi and founder of a radical Zionist movement, 5 November 1990.

Thomas Henry Kuchel, 84, Republican senator from California (1953-1969); refused to buckle to the demands of the fringe Right in California Republican politics, 21 November 1994.

Thurgood Marshall, 82, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1967-1991), the first African American to hold a seat there, who in 1954, as chief counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), argued Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court, 24 January 1993.

John A. McCone, 89, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (1958-1961); director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1961-1965), 14 February 1991.

Wilmer David "Vinegar Bend" Mizell, 68, Republican representative from North Carolina (1969-1975); assistant Secretary of Commerce (1975-1976). Before becoming a politician he was a pitcher in the major leagues (1950-1962), 21 February 1999.

George Lloyd Murphy, 89, actor, Republican senator from California (1965-1971), 3 May 1992.

Edmund Sixtus Muskie, 81, Democratic governor (1955-1959) of, and senator (1959-1980) from, Maine; U.S. Secretary of State (1980-1981); vice-presidential nominee (1968); and candidate for the Democratic nomination for president (1972), but his chances were dashed when he cried while defending his wife from scurrilous press attacks on her character, 26 March 1996.

Richard Milhous Nixon, 81, Republican representative (1947-1950) and senator (1950-1953) from California; vice president of the U.S. (1953-1961); unsuccessful candidate for president (1960); unsuccessful candidate for governor of California (1962); President of the United States (1969-1974). The Watergate scandal led to allegations that he had engaged in a cover-up, and as his impeachment by the House of Representatives looked increasingly likely, he resigned the presidency. He was later pardoned by President Gerald R. Ford and wrote several books on foreign affairs, 22 April 1994.

Thelma Catherine "Pat" Nixon (née Ryan), 79, wife of President Richard M. Nixon; first lady (1969-1973), 22 June 1993.

Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill Jr., 81, Democratic representative from Massachusetts (1953-1987); Speaker of the House (1977-1987); author of Man of the House: The Life and Political Memoirs of Speaker Tip O'Neill (1987); famous for the piece of political wisdom that "all politics is local," 5 January 1994.

Lewis Franklin Powell Jr., 90, associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1972-1987); wrote the decision in the University of California Regents v. Bakke (1978) that outlawed racial quotas, but allowed race to be a factor in university admissions policy, in effect confirming affirmative-action policies, 25 August 1998.

Dixie Lee Ray, 79, governor of Washington (1977-1981); supporter of nuclear power and last chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), 2 January 1994.

Abraham Alexander Ribicoff, 87, Democratic representative (1949-1953) and senator (1963-1981) from Connecticut; governor of Connecticut (1955-1961); Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (1961—1962). He is famous for denouncing the "Gestapo tactics" of the Chicago police at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, 22 February 1998.

Elliot Lee Richardson, 79, Republican politician; Under Secretary of State (1969-1970); Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (1970-1973); Secretary of Defense (1973); Attorney General (1973); US. Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1975-1976); and Secretary of Commerce (1976-1977). He is the only person to have headed four different cabinet departments; resigned as Attorney General (1973) rather than carry out President Richard Nixon's orders to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, setting off a chain of appointments and firings known as the "Saturday Night Massacre"; author of Reflections of a Radical Moderate (1996), 31 December 1999.

George Wilcken Romney, 88, Republican governor of Michigan (1963-1969); unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 1968; served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in Richard M. Nixon's cabinet (1969-1973), 26 July 1995.

David Dean Rusk, 85, Secretary of State during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations (1961-1969); was an active participant in the deliberations in the executive branch during the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962); one of the architects of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, 20 December 1994.

Terranee "Terry" Sanford, 80, Democratic governor (1961-1965) of, and senator (1986-1993) from, North Carolina; candidate for the Democratic nomination for president (1972, 1976); president of Duke University (1969-1985), 18 April 1998.

Hugh Doggett Scott Jr., 93, Republican representative (1941-1945, 1947-1959) and senator (1959-1977) from Pennsylvania; Senate Minority Leader (1969—1977), 21 July 1994.

John Joseph Sirica, 87, federal judge; presided in the Watergate trial; subpoenaed the tapes that suggested that President Richard M. Nixon was involved in a cover-up, leading to his resignation, 14 August 1992.

Margaret Chase Smith, 97, Republican representative (1940-1949) and senator (1949-1973) from Maine; first woman elected to both houses of Congress, 29 May 1995.

Maurice Hubert Stans, 90, Republican administrator and fund-raiser; director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB, 1958-1961) and Secretary of Commerce (1969-1972). Charged with violating fund-raising laws in Richard M. Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign; acquitted, but pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges in 1975 and paid a fine, 14 April 1998.

John Cornelius Stennis, 93, Democratic senator from Mississippi (1947-1989); President Pro Tempore of the Senate (1987-1989). He was one of the Southern senators known for their opposition to civil rights legislation, 23 April 1995.

John Goodwin Tower, 65, Republican senator from Texas (1961-1985); chairman of the Tower Commission established to investigate the Iran-Contra scandal in the Reagan administration (1987); appointed by President George Bush to be Secretary of Defense (1989), but failed to gain confirmation in the Senate, 5 April 1991.

Paul Efthemios Tsongas, 55, Democratic representative (1975-1979) and senator (1979-1985) from Massachusetts; candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for president (1992), 18 January 1997.

Morris King Udall, 75, Democratic representative from Arizona (1961-1991); an early opponent of the Vietnam War and an environmentalist; unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for president (1976), 12 December 1998.

John Anthony Volpe, Republican governor of Massachusetts (1961-1963, 1965-1969); Secretary of Transportation (1969-1973); ambassador to Italy (1973-1977), 1998.

George Corley Wallace Jr., 79, segregationist governor of Alabama (1963-1967, 1971-1979, and 1983-1987), although he did change his stance by the 1980s; famous for refusing to allow African American students to enroll at the University of Alabama by standing in the door of the University to block their court-ordered admission (1963); ran for president as the American Independent Party candidate (1968); unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for president (1972 and 1976); paralyzed in the lower half of his body by a would-be assassin's bullet (1972), 13 September 1998.

Robert Clifton Weaver, 89, first African American cabinet member as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (1966-1969), 17 July 1997.

Jamie Lloyd Whitten, 85, Democratic representative from Mississippi (1939-1993); chair of the House Appropriations Committee (1978-1992); served in the House longer than anyone in history, fifty-three years; opposed civilrights legislation and channeled enormous amounts of federal spending into his state, 9 September 1995.

Ralph Webster Yarborough, 92, Democratic senator from Texas (1957-1971); only member of Congress from a southern state to vote for the 1964 Civil Rights Act; was riding in the automobile carrying Lyndon B. Johnson in the Dallas motorcade when President John F. Kennedy was shot (1963), 27 January 1996.

Coleman Alexander Young, 79, first African American mayor of Detroit (1974-1994) and first African American member of the Democratic National Committee (1968), 29 November 1997.