Robert Byrd

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American politician, the longest-serving Senator in United States history as of June 12, 2006. Senator Byrd was elected to an eighth consecutive term in the U.S. Senate in 2000, carrying 1,963 out of 1,970 precincts in West Virginia. He was the majority leader of the Senate from 1977-81 and again from 1987-89, and his colleagues have elected him to more leadership positions than any other Senator in U.S. history. He has cast more votes, over 17,800, than any other Senator in U.S. history, with a 98.7 percent attendance record in nearly 50 years in the Senate. Just a few days short of first birthday, his mother died in the influenza epidemic. His father sent him to live with Robert's aunt Vlurma Sale, and her husband Titus Dalton Byrd, in West Virginia. In a 1998 Mother's Day speech, Senator Byrd said his mother knew she might not survive the influenza and asked his father to give Robert to his sister Vlurma. Byrd learned his real name, Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr, at the age of 16, and his true birth date from an elder brother in 1971. Until then, Byrd believed his birth to be January 15th, 1918. Byrd's education began in a two room schoolhouse in Algonquin, Merger County when he lived up a hollow in a house with no running water or electricity. As his foster father drifted from job to job as a miner, Byrd spent a simple childhood in a succession of company towns. The family moved to Stotesbury where Byrd was valedictorian of the 28 student 1934 class of Mark Twain High School in Stotesbury, but because of the Depression Byrd could not go to college. Byrd worked briefly as a gas station attendant, a produce boy at a local market, but eager to improver himself, Byrd studied meat cutting and by the end of the 1930s, he was earning $85 a month as chief butcher at a grocery store in Crab Orchard, WV. Byrd married Emma Ora James in a 1937 ceremony attended by their parents at the home of Rev. U.G. Nichols. The couple had two daughters, Mrs. Mohammad (Mona Byrd) Faterni and Mrs Jon (Marjorie Byrd) Moore, six grandchildren and five great granddaughters. Emma Ora James Byrd died in March 2006 at age 88, after a long illness. According to her obituary they met while both were students at Mark Twain High School in Stotesbury, Raleigh County. Byrd moved to Baltimore in the early 1940s to work as a welder in wartime shipyards, returning to West Virginia after the war ended, and opened his own grocery store in Sophia WV, 1948. He was baptized in the church yard of Crab Orchard Baptists Church in Crab Orchard, WV. Byrd taught a popular adult Bible class in the basement of the church, building the membership, according to a 1952 campaign advertisement, from 6 to 636 in one year, making it the largest adult Sunday School class in WV. Byrd's diploma from Marshall University was awarded 60 years after high school when Senator Byrd was 77. In between high school and his undergraduate degree, Byrd enrolled in law school at American University earning his law degree in 1963. The Senator started the Scholastic Recognition Award in 1969 which presents a savings bond and congratulations from the Senator for every public and private high school valedictorian. In 1985, Senator Byrd launched the first and only federal merit based scholarship assisting tens of thousands of students across the nation. One of the Senator's major avocations is playing the fiddle. He said his fiddle case became his briefcase. His skill led to performances at the Kennedy Center and on national television, and he recorded an album, Mountain Fiddler. The chronology of Senator Byrd’s political life is as follows: 1946-50 Delegate, West Virginia House of Delegates 1950-52 Senator, West Virginia State Senate 1952-58 Representative, United States House of Representatives 1958-Present Senator, United States Senate 1971 Senate Democratic Whip, United Stats Senate 1977-1980, 1987-1988 Senate Majority Leader, United States Senate 1981-1986 Senate Minority Leader, United States Senate. The longest-serving Congressman in US history died on June 28, 2010 in a Fairfax, VA hospital. Link to Wikipedia biography