Ken Hechler dies at 102

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

http://www.your4state.com/news/west-virginia/former-west-virginia-secretary-of-state-passes-away/617879649

Served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1959 to 1977 and as West Virginia Secretary of State from 1985 to 2001. Ran unsuccessfully for Governor in 1976 and challenger Manchin for the Senate from the left in 2010 (he refused to support Manchin in GE). Since 2011 he was Oldest Living Member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The he was the only member of Congress to march with MLK at Selma, Hechler also opposed mountaintop removal mining and championed mining safety regulations (being a main author of the Coal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1969) and campaign finance reform.

[BuckeyeNut]

Absolute FF. I know my friends in West Virginia are in morning. RIP, Congressman.

[Phony Moderate]

His name came up the other day in a discussion involving ridiculously old cabinet suggestions for Trump. His 2010 run was pretty damn cool. RIP, FF. 

[Filuwaúrdjan]

He was an... odd... creature. A long and very full life. His feud with Rahall was absolutely hilarious, RIP.

[Kingpoleon]

RIP, FF.

[Famous Mortimer]

Was he also the EARLIEST living member? Is anybody alive who served before 1959?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Was he also the EARLIEST living member? Is anybody alive who served before 1959?

No, John Dingell is the one since November (elected in 1954).

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Apparently he was one of West Virginia's most colorful politicians. I've long heard family lore about a drunken AJ Manchin passing out in the baseball field or Bob Byrd knowing my great-grandfather briefly when he got the funds for the Sutton damn to be built (whose construction somehow ended up with my non-engineer ancestor in charge) or taking my great Aunt who was Mrs. Department of Agriculture to meet President Nixon during a fairly routine tour of the building. My grandma and her sisters met Arch Moore on a cruise in 1995. Nothing much about Hechler, though.