Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993 TAG: 9306160249
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HOUSTON LENGTH: Medium
Connally and his close friend and political partner, the late President Lyndon Johnson, were dominant forces in Texas politics for decades until the early 1970s.
Connally was governor from 1963 to 1968. In 1961 he served for a few months as Kennedy's secretary of the Navy but left to run for governor. He was treasury secretary for President Nixon from 1971 to 1972.
Connally was riding in the car with Kennedy when the president was assassinated in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. He was struck, too, and the bullet passed through his body, leaving him with scars on his back, chest, wrist and thigh.
"He will be remembered fondly by his state and his country for the work that he did and the person that he was," President Clinton said in a statement.
After Johnson's death in 1973, Connally switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party, and his popularity waned.
Connally's 1974 indictment by a Watergate grand jury further eroded his political power, though he was acquitted of charges that he accepted a $10,000 bribe from milk producers to persuade Nixon to raise price supports.
Connally ran for president in 1980, but dropped out in March after Ronald Reagan trounced him in the South Carolina Republican primary. After spending $12.5 million he garnered only one pledged delegate. The 6-foot-2 Texan hailed Reagan as "the champ," and was the first ex-presidential candidate to campaign for him.
Reagan said of Connally on Tuesday: "Leaders from both parties have always been able to turn to him for his sensible views and sound advice."
by CNB