53-Year Congressman Jamie Whitten Dies
Former Rep. Jamie Lloyd Whitten, who served a record 53 years in the House, died Saturday. He was 85.
Whitten, a Mississippi Democrat who retired in 1994, died of complications of chronic cardiac and renal disease, according to doctors at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi in Oxford.
Whitten had battled health problems since 1992, including several strokes and a recent bout with pneumonia.
Whitten served with 11 presidents and was chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee from 1979 to 1992.
He was elected to Congress on Nov. 4, 1941, about a month before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He won reelection 26 times.
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