Ex-Sen. Stuart Symington of Missouri Is Dead at 87

Stuart Symington, former U.S. senator from Missouri, died of heart failure at his home early today, a son said. He was 87.

The Democrat served in the Senate from 1953 to 1977, deciding not to seek a fifth term, and held various posts within President Harry S. Truman’s administration from 1945 to 1952, including Air Force secretary in 1947-50.

He was a favorite-son candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1956 and 1960, losing to Adlai E. Stevenson and John F. Kennedy respectively.

“He’d been ill with angina and weakness of the heart,” said James Symington, a son of the senator and a former Missouri congressman.

An Army veteran and graduate of Yale University, was chairman from 1938 to 1945 of Emerson Electric Co. in St. Louis before entering political life.

As Air Force secretary he urged development of a large air force at a time when Defense Secretary James Forrestal and other officials favored a balance with land and sea forces, and he quit in 1950 in a protest against budget cuts.

In the Senate, he served on the Armed Services Committee. In 1956, he began sounding the alarm that the Soviets were beating the United States in the missile race.

After leaving the Senate, he married Ann Hemingway Watson of New Canaan and relocated to the wealthy Connecticut community just north of New York City.

He occupied his time preparing his memoirs and playing golf, his son said.

“He kept up with current events. He was a sportsman all of his life,” James Symington said.

In addition to his son and wife, Symington is survived by a second son, Stuart Symington Jr., a St. Louis attorney; six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.