Posted on 03/07/2019 1:43:17 PM PST by Olog-hai
Former Texas Rep. Ralph Hall, the oldest-ever member of the U.S. House and a man who claimed to have once sold cigarettes and Coca-Cola to the bank-robbing duo of Bonnie and Clyde, has died at age 95.
The Republican and World War II pilot died at his home in Rockwall on Thursday morning, said Ed Valentine, Hall’s longtime strategist. Asked about a cause of death, Valentine simply cited Hall’s age, saying he hadn’t been suffering from any known long-term health problems.
Hall was 91 when he left the House after being defeated in a 2014 Republican primary runoff election by John Ratcliffe. The former U.S. attorney was less than half Hall’s age and well-schooled in digital and data-heavy campaigning. […]
Getting ousted by his own party in 2014 came a decade after Hall became a Republican as Texas moved further to the right. He served 12 terms in Congress as a Democrat but announced in January 2004 that he’d made the switch, backed by his friend, then-President George W. Bush. …
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Trying not to speak ill of the dead but sounds like a RINO geezer to me.
At one time, virtually all Texas congressmen were Democrats. If you wanted your vote to count, you registered as a Democrat because the real election was in the primaries.
Originally, I was in that situation and this guy’s death reminds me of my age. Strange the article mentions Bonnie and Clyde. My father, who was a cop at the time, had an encounter with those two and and was fortunate to come out alive or I wouldn’t be here. :D
I thought Claude Pepper held that title.
Condolences to family and friends of Ralph Hall.
I remember when I lived in Florida if we saw someone driving too slow, we would say that they were in the “Claude Pepper Lane”.
e would have been 10 when B&C died. Sure it’s possible he sold them cigarettes and a Coke but I’d bet his story is BS.
Nope, he was a solid Conservative.
He was 11 when they died. Given that it was the Depression, it was not unusual for a kid to be working. His Wikipedia page stated he pumped their gas for them, though he didn’t recognize them until later.
See. There are really term limits.
He was one of only five Democrats who voted to impeach Bill Clinton.
Strom Thurmond held it for the Senate. I was lucky. I got to testify before him when he was only in his 70’s.
Ralph Hall represented a (once) ultra red section of North Texas. The district is still mostly red, and Ralph Hall is well remebered by those folks as an excellent congressman.
Ralph Hall's claim isn't as farfetched as you might think.
Bonnie was from Dallas Texas, and Clyde grew up in adjacent Ellis County. Ralph Hall was from Fate, which is a small town about 20 miles east of the Dallas city limit.
The I-30 freeway runs from Dallas, right past Fate, which would have been a sure gas stop back in the days when I-30 was a two lane highway.
If Ralph Hall worked in any country store in 1930s Fate, he probably saw Bonnie and Clyde multiple times.
Odd considering he was elected as a democrat for over a decade from that district.
Texas was majority Democrat just a few decades ago, but that was back when the Dem party still welcomed Americans.
Texans are, by and large, conservative folks, so as the Dem party shifted more and more left, Texas voters switched to the Republican party.
Ralph Hall just did what all Texas conservatives did, eventually.
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