Local

Byrd praised for decades of service

Catholic News Service

WHEELING, W.Va. – Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of
Wheeling-Charleston praised Sen. Robert C. Byrd as “a great
statesman and public servant” after the June 28 death of the
longest-serving member of the U.S. Senate in American
history.

“While we will prayerfully reflect on his decades of
scholarship, hard work and dedication to the people of West
Virginia, we must also celebrate the future that Senator Byrd
helped shape,” the bishop said of the Democrat who
represented the state in the Senate for 52 years and was
instrumental in bringing billions of dollars in federal funds
to West Virginia.

Bishop Bransfield said Byrd “led the transformation of West
Virginia’s highways, and technology, health care, education
and criminal justice systems, which will advance the quality
of life in our beloved state for generations to come.”

The 92-year-old senator died in the early morning hours of
June 28 at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia, where he had
been hospitalized for what was initially thought to be heat
exhaustion.

His political career – which also included terms in the West
Virginia House of Delegates and Senate and six years in the
U.S. House of Representatives – could trace its origins to
the adult Bible classes he taught at Crab Orchard Baptist
Church in Sophia, where he ran a grocery store. After the
class grew from six people to 636 in a year, a radio station
in Beckley began broadcasting his lessons, making Byrd a
local celebrity.

Born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr. in North Wilkesboro, N.C.,
Byrd was sent to live with an aunt and uncle in Stotesbury,
W.Va., after his mother died before his first birthday.
Renamed Robert Carlyle Byrd, he did not know his real name
until he was 16 and learned his real birth date from an older
brother only in 1971.

President Barack Obama praised Byrd’s lengthy service in
Congress and said his was a “uniquely American” story.

“He was born into wrenching poverty but educated himself to
become an authoritative scholar, respected leader and
unparalleled champion of our Constitution,” he said. “He had
the courage to stand firm in his principles but also the
courage to stand over time.”

Byrd once served briefly as an “exalted cyclops” in the Ku
Klux Klan and personally conducted a 14-hour filibuster
against the Civil Rights Act of 1965, but he later modified
his stand on civil rights.

Both Obama, a former U.S. senator from Illinois, and
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton praised Byrd for
his generosity toward those who were new to the Senate.

“He held the deepest respect of members of both parties, and
he was generous with his time and advice, something I
appreciated greatly as a young senator,” Obama said.

Clinton said she sought out Byrd’s guidance “from my first
day in the Senate … and he was always generous with his
time and his wisdom.”

“I admired his tireless advocacy for his constituents, his
fierce defense of the Constitution and the traditions of the
Senate, and his passion for government that improves the
lives of the people it serves,” Clinton added. “And as
secretary of state … I have been grateful for the support
he has provided as a leader of the Appropriations Committee
to our diplomats and development workers as they serve our
country and advance our interests all over the world.”

Byrd was married for 68 years to his childhood sweetheart,
the former Emma Ora James, who died in 2006. He is survived
by their two daughters, five grandchildren and seven
great-grandchildren.

Related Articles