Former West Virginia governor and US senator Jay Rockefeller dies at 89
The gist
Former West Virginia governor and five-term US senator Jay Rockefeller died Friday at his home in Washington, D.C., at 89.
He built a 30-year Senate career in a state he first reached as a young volunteer.
How it unfolded
- Jun 18, 1937John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV is born in New York City, great-grandson of Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller Sr.
- 1964He arrives in West Virginia as a young VISTA volunteer, assigned to Emmons, a small mining community in Boone and Kanawha counties.
- 1976He is elected governor, defeating Republican Cecil Underwood, and takes office in January 1977.
Key terms
- VISTA
- A national service program founded in 1965 to fight poverty in America, later part of AmeriCorps.
- Republican
- The Republican Party, one of the two major political parties in the United States.
- Democrat
- A liberal political party in the United States, one of the country's two major parties, founded in 1828.
Source: Wikipedia