MUMBLINGS April 21, 2005

United States Senators are powerful people.

Since 1937, it has been my privilege to have known every one of them from Alabama, including our present two senators, Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions. Senator Lister Hill was elected to succeed Hugo Black who was promoted to the U.S. Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Prior to this, and since the early 1920's, Hill was U.S. Congressman, representing Baldwin County in the Second Congressional District.

I considered four of these, Senators Lister Hill, John Sparkman, James B. Allen, and Howell Heflin who retired and later died, to be friends. Three of them ate in our home at 705 East 5th Street, Bay Minette, numerous times. I consider Hill to be the greatest state political figure in Alabama during the 20th century, because of his outstanding record as author of the Hill/Burton Act which built hundreds of hospitals throughout America and his other welfare and health leadership which caused him to be designated "Dr. Health, U.S.A."

Sparkman was also outstanding, having been a national leader in welfare housing legislation. In 1952, he was also nominated Vice President of the United States in the Democratic Party, to run with Adlai Stevenson against Ike Eisenhower, who won. Sparkman was also elected by his peers as a delegate to the United Nations. It was my privilege to visit him in New York and he introduced me to a lot of the world leaders at that time.

James B. Allen was perhaps the best loved U.S. Senator during the 20th Century. He was noted for his mastership of the Senate rules, which gave him power to overwhelm Senators who opposed him. He was continuously, during the ten years he served from 1968 to 1978, to be the most popular political figure in Alabama, always ranking 85% approval and above.

Of the four senators, I was closer to Allen than any of the others because of our long time friendship in the Alabama Legislature, even though we ran against each other for Governor in 1954. He was the acme of honesty and integrity, intelligence and character.

Next to him, I was closer to Senator Heflin, having been a close friend for a number of years. Unfortunately, he died in late March after having served for 18 years in the United States Senate and six years as the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

Heflin was known for his judicial ability and wrote many of the Judicial Articles, which are still in effect today in courts throughout the United States.

He was pudgy, lovable and a great teller of jokes. If I happened to be in the audience, he would more than likely pull his jokes on me. As far as I know, he was the only Senator to ever have my picture in his Washington office.

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It is an interesting fact that he was the last Democrat to run for a statewide office to carry Baldwin County. Although by narrow margin in his last race, the Republicans have since been supreme in this county.

Another powerful lawmaker, who died one day before Senator Heflin, was Congressman Tom Bevill, of Jasper. He represented my old home county of Lamar and was one of the most powerful congressmen to ever serve from Alabama.

I will never forget an editorial in the great newspaper, The St Louis Post Dispatch, which proclaimed Alabama as being the best represented in the United States Senate of any state in the nation. This was in the 1940's when Senators Hill and Sparkman were our Senators. Alabama has been well represented in the United States Senate.

During this 67-year period of knowing Alabama's Senators, you might ask me if I could name four Governors as outstanding as the four Senators mentioned. My answer would have to be no. Even though we have had some good governors, none really stand out as great in our state history. Among our governors with the greatest recognition would have to be George Wallace, who in many respects was a good governor. Unfortunately, he will go down in the history of the state as more negative than positive.

Like many other great Americans, Heflin will be long remembered, admired and sadly missed.

See you again soon, I hope.