Hunter Andrews dead at 83 (Former Senator a power in legislature)

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http://richmondtimesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031780253028

Note: from my hometown. :(

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Hunter B. Andrews, a colorful and imperious former state senator credited with modernizing Virginia's education and transportation policies during a career spanning three decades, died during the night at his home in Hampton, apparently of a heart attack, Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar said this morning. He was 83.

"That's the end of an era," said a tearful Schaar, who first met Mr. Andrews in the 1970s. "That's why it's raining so hard today. We lost a giant."

Mr. Andrews, distinguished by a sharp intellect, acid tongue and a distinctive Tidewater lilt, came to dominate the Virginia Senate, which he joined in 1964 as a outspoken proponent of public education and critic of the segregationist political organization that once dominated the statehouse.

Mr. Andrews was defeated in 1995 by Martin E. Williams, a Newport News Republican. At the time, Mr. Andrews -- who had fiercely opposed controversial tax and spending cuts pushed by GOP Gov. George Allen -- was at the height of his powers, serving as floor leader of the Senate's former Democratic majority and chairman of the budget-writing finance committee.

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