One for the Record Books

Senator
Robert C. Byrd from West Virginia set many records as a US Senator.

U.S. Senate

Institutional Records

• longest serving U.S. Senator in history. (Senator Byrd had served 17,327 days in
  the U.S. Senate on June 12, 2006 – making him the longest serving U.S. Senator in
  history.)
• He was the only person elected to nine full-terms in the U.S. Senate.
• presided over the shortest session of the U.S. Senate in history. (6/10ths of a
  second, February 27, 1989.)
• presided over the Senate for the longest continuous period in history. (21 hour, 8
  minutes, March 7-8, 1960.)
• has served on a U.S. Senate Committee longer than other U.S. Senator in history.
  (U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, January 14, 1959-present.)
• only U.S. Senator to preside over more than one Senate impeachment trial. (Judge
  Alcee Hastings, October 20, 1989; Judge Walter Nixon, November 3, 1989.)
  U.S. Senate Voting Records
• has cast more roll call votes than any other U.S. Senator. (Cast vote number
  12,134 on April 27, 1990.) (He cast, in total, 18,689 votes)
• cast 4,705 consecutive votes – the second highest consecutive vote total in U.S.

Senate history.

U.S. Senate Leadership

• has held the most leadership positions in the U.S. Senate (secretary of the majority
  conference, majority whip, minority leader, majority leader, and president pro tempore of the Senate.)
• one of two U.S. Senators to be elected Senate Majority Leader in non-consecutive
  terms. (Served as U.S. Senate Majority Leader in 95th and 96th Congresses, 1977-
  1981, and 100th Congress, 1987-1989.)

West Virginia

• has served in the U.S. Senate longer than any of the other U.S. Senator from West
  Virginia.
• only West Virginian to have served in both Houses of the West Virginia State
  Legislature and both Houses of the U.S. Congress.
• first public official in West Virginia to have won all of the state’s 55 counties in a
  contested election.
• first West Virginian elected without opposition in a general state election.

Personal

• only person to have begun and completed a law degree while serving in the United
  States Congress.
• first Senator to have completed a comprehensive history of the U.S. Senate based
  on his own insights, recollections, and the work of scholars

-senate.gov/assets/pdf/BYRD RECORDS.pdf

Early Life

Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr. in North Wilkesboro, N.C., Nov. 20, 1917. After losing his parents at an early age he was raised by an aunt and uncle. At the age of twenty he married his high-school sweetheart Erma Ora James in 1937. This sixty-nine year marriage continued until her death in 2006.

Legislative Years

Robert Byrd was first elected to the State Legislature of West Virginia in 1947. In 1952 He became a US Congressman and in 1959 was elected to the US Senate. He was Democratic whip 1971-1977; Majority Leader 1977-1980, 1987-1988; Minority Leader 1981-1986; President pro tempore (1989-1995, June 6, 2001-January 3, 2003, 2007-June 28, 2010); chair, Committee on Appropriations, bringing numerous bills out of committee with money for his district, for better than half a century.

An end at last

At the age of 92 Robert C Byrd checked in to the hospital for the last time. He was complaining of Heat exaustion and dehydration. He died peacefully at 3am on the morning of 28 June,2010 at Inova Fairfax Hospital just outside of Washington DC.

Honours

A short list of the many things named after him would include

• The Green Bank Radio Telescope,
• The federal courthouses in Charleston and Beckley,
• A set of locks on the Ohio River at Gallipolis Ferry,
• The Robert C. Byrd Appalachian Highway System.

Further info

The Senate Biography of the man also said

Senator Byrd has been blessed with a loving family, including two daughters, Mrs Mohammad (Mona Byrd) Fatemi and Mrs Jon (Marjorie Byrd) Moore; six grandchildren: Erik, Darius, and Fredrik Fatemi; Michael Moore (deceased), Mona Byrd Moore Pearson, and Mary Anne Moore Clarkson; five great granddaughters: Caroline Byrd Fatemi; Kathryn James Fatemi, and Anna Cristina Honora Fatemi; Emma James Clarkson and Hannah Byrd Clarkson; and two great grandsons, Michael Yoo Fatemi and James Matthew Fatemi.

Senator Byrd is the author of five books: The Senate, 1789-1989. 4 volumes, Vols. 1 and 2, Addresses on the History of the United States Senate; Vol. 3, Classic Speeches, 1830 - 1993; Vol. 4, Historical Statistics, 1789 - 1992. Washington, US Government Printing Office, 1994; The Senate of the Roman Republic: Addresses on the History of Roman Constitutionalism. Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1994; Losing America: Confronting A Reckless and Arrogant Presidency. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2004; Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2005; and co-author with Steve Kettmann, Letter to a New President. New York: St Martin's Press/Thomas Dunne Books, 2008.
-byrd.senate.gov//about/index.cfm?ID=11