Series of "Historical Minutes"
1946-2000
September 7, 1969
Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen Dies
During eleven years as his party's floor leader, Illinois
Republican Everett McKinley Dirksen became more
closely identified in the public mind with the U. S. Senate
than any other senator of his time. His disheveled physical
appearance, his dramatic flair, his cathedral-organ voice:
all these attributes made him the personification of radio
entertainer Fred Allen's fictional 1940s "Senator
Claghorn." He was the grand marshal of the Tournament
of Roses parade; he pioneered a weekly televised press
conference with his House counterpart; and, with a
narrative album entitled Gallant Men, he became a
recording star. The hordes of curious tourists who
flocked to his Capitol office forced him to remove his
name from its door. Today, because a Senate office
building honors him, his name remains a most familiar one
throughout Capitol Hill.
On September 7, 1969, Senate Minority Leader Everett
Dirksen died at the age of seventy-three. Dirksen had
come to Congress in 1933 as a House member and
moved to the Senate in 1951 after defeating Senate
Majority Leader Scott Lucas. From the time he was
elected his party's floor leader in 1959, through 1968, the
number of Senate Republicans never exceeded thirty-six.
Yet, as a supremely creative and resourceful legislator,
Dirksen routinely influenced the majority's agenda and
provided decisive support for such legislation as the 1962
United Nations bond issue, the 1963 Nuclear Test Ban
Treaty, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He fought equally
hard for his unsuccessful causes, which ranged from a
constitutional amendment to permit school prayers to
endorsement of the marigold as the national flower. His
willingness to change his position on issues earned him
designations ranging from "statesman" to "Grand Old
Chameleon."
On the subject of Senate leadership, it was Dirksen who
said, "There are 100 diverse personalities in the U.S.
Senate. Oh Great God. What an amazing and dissonant
100 personalities they are! What an amazing thing it is to
harmonize them."
Researchers have been unable to find a written version of
Dirksen's most famous quotation. Cautioning against
treating the federal budget casually, Dirksen observed
that the unit of money favored by those seeking to fund
programs is a million — later versions had it a billion —
dollars. "A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon
you're talking real money."
Further Reading:
Byrd, Robert C., The Senate, 1789-1989, Volume I (Washington,
D.C.: GPO, 1988).
Dirksen, Everett McKinley, The Education of a Senator: Everett
McKinley Dirksen (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998).
MacNeil, Neil, Dirksen (New York: World Publishing Company,
1970).
[ Previous ] [ Next ]
[ Back to Content Page ] |
