Former Sen. John Warner, Once Married to Elizabeth Taylor, Dies at 94
By: WSJ
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Former Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, a former Navy secretary who was once married to Elizabeth Taylor, has died at 94, his longtime chief of staff said Wednesday.
Mr. Warner died Tuesday of heart failure at home in Alexandria, Va., with his wife and daughter at his side, Susan A. Magill said.
"He was frail but had a lot of spirit and was involved until his last days," Ms. Magill said.
Mr. Warner, a Republican, was elected to the Senate in 1978 and served five terms. He announced in 2007 that he would not run again in 2008.
A former secretary of the Navy, Mr. Warner for a time was chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Mr. Warner was also the sixth of the actress’s seven husbands. The two were married from 1976 to 1982.
Democrat Mark Warner, who had challenged him for the Senate in 1996 and went on to serve a term as Virginia’s governor, won the election to succeed him in 2008. After years of rivalry, the two became good friends, and John Warner attended his swearing-in in January 2009. Mark Warner—no relation—said his friend “epitomizes what it means to be a senator.”
“Virginia has lost an unmatched leader, and my family has lost a dear friend,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.). “Once I came to the Senate, I understood even more deeply the influence of John Warner. I came to know John McCain, Carl Levin, and so many others who served with him and attested to his integrity and outsized influence in a body he loved so dearly.”
John Warner had an independent streak that sometimes infuriated conservative GOP leaders but won him support from moderates in both parties. The courtly senator, with chiseled features and a thick shock of gray hair, was so popular with Virginia voters that Democrats did not bother to challenge him for his 2002 reelection that won him his fifth term.
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The Senator served his country admirably and with honor in the military and in political office. They don't make them like Warner anymore.
Some may recall the actress he married:
Nice catch?
I believe he once said the US Senate doesn't do much until it act's and then it does it all at once. I'm para-phrasing, so don't come through the screen.
Well, there's a wise old saying:
Confucious say man who talk through screen door often strains his voice!
Maybe some outraged adolescent on Twitter will get it.
I liked him as my Senator
When Virginia was red and picturesque!
And when people weren't so partisan as to discount that there are good people on both sides of the aisle.
It seems both Warners knew better than to view everything through a partisan lens.
The second Warner, no relation to the first, ran against the first and lost.
You may be right about Mark Warner's willingness to reach across the aisle. Let us judge him, once and for all, by how he votes on the filibuster, should it ever come to that.
Two Warners running against each other had to be an interesting campaign. I wonder if any of the voters got the names mixed up when marking their ballots.
If they did, they really shouldn't be voting.