Obituaries : Charles J. Carney; Labor Activist, Ex-Congressman
Charles J. Carney, a labor activist who served four terms in the House of Representatives, has died at the age of 74.
Carney, a Democrat who also held a state Senate seat for two decades, died Wednesday of a heart ailment complicated by pneumonia.
Carney was elected to Congress in 1970 to fill a vacancy and went on to win three full terms in the House. He lost the seat in 1978 to Republican Lyle Williams.
In 1980 he was indicted on charges of accepting a free credit card from Lyden Oil Co. of Youngstown, Ohio, in exchange for political favors but the charges were later dropped.
Before he entered politics, much of Carney’s career was with labor unions. He joined United Rubber Workers Local 102 in 1934 and later served as its vice president and president. He was president of the union district council in the early 1940s and served as a state representative to the international from 1942 to 1950.
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