Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields

859 Pages·2005·6.4 MB·English

by  Robert C. Byrd

ROBERT C. BYRD
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ROBERT C. BYRD
CHILD OF THE
APPALACHIAN
COALFIELDS
by Robert C. Byrd
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west virginia university press
morgantown 2005
West Virginia University Press, Morgantown 26506
© 2005 by West Virginia University Press
All rights reserved
First edition published 2005 by West Virginia University Press
Printed in the United States of America
11 10 09 08 07 06 05 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN 1-933202-00-9 (cloth)
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
West Virginia University Press.
Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields / Robert C. Byrd.
xii, 820 p. 25 cm.
1. Byrd, Robert C., 1917- . 2. Byrd, Robert C., 1917- —Family. 3. Legislators—United States—
Biography. 4. Legislators—West Virginia—Biography. 5. United States—Politics and government—
1946-. I. Title. II. Byrd, Robert C.
IN PROCESS
Library of Congress Control Number: 2005920985
Edited by Kathryn Hilt
Book and Jacket Design by Than Saffel
Cover landscape photo: “Highlands Vista,” ©2005 Gary Lake/WVW Photography
Spine portrait photo: “Robert Byrd, Washington DC, 1997,” ©Herb Ritts Foundation
To Erma
“And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down
into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become
invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he forever flies within the
gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop
the mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even
though they soar.”
Herman Melville. Moby Dick
contents
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1 CHILD OF THE APPALACHIAN COALFIELDS 1
2 THE DEPRESSION YEARS 20
3 A POLITICAL CAREER BEGINS 41
4 MR. BYRD GOES TO WASHINGTON 56
5 AROUND THE WORLD IN sixty-six DAYS 67
6 EXCELSIOR! 93
7 THE SAPLING GROWS TALL 114
8 STORMY WATERS 160
9 CLIMBING THE LEADERSHIP LADDER 194
10 A VISIT TO RUSSIa 234
11 MUDDY WATERS 247
12 A SUPREME COURT NOMINATION? 296
13 BUILDING WEST VIRGINIA PIECE BY PIECE 312
14 THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH 343
15 THE TOP RUNG—MAJORITY LEADER (1977) 377
16 SECOND FIDDLE 414
17 BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 446
18 ELECTED PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE 468
19 A HAND ON THE PURSE STRINGS 473
20 BUILDING A NEW WEST VIRGINIA 510
21 WEST VIRGINIA ON THE GO 533
22 BITS AND PIECES 557
23 BUILDING A 21st CENTURY WEST VIRGINIA 569
24 THE WINDS OF CHANGE 596
25 THE TIDE EBBS 614
26 FULL CIRCLE 643
27 THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE 664
28 DRIBS AND DRABS 676
29 LINE-ITEM VETO STRUCK DOWN 697
30 IN THE HEAT OF BATTLE 715
31 SEMPER FIDELIS 751
32 AFTERWORD 771
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ROBERT C. BYRD
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chapter
1
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CHILD OF THE APPALACHIAN COALFIELDS
The best use of life is to invest it in something which will outlast life.
William James
A
ccording to genealogical records, a William Sale came to America from
England in the year 1657. Sale had been born in England in 1638, and
was brought to Rappahannock County, Virginia, by one John Stevens,
who had been granted land in that county. Two hundred and sixty years after
the immigrant William Sale reached America in 1657, a direct descendant was
born in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on November 20, 1917, and given
the name Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. The child had three older brothers—Clyde,
William, and Reuben—and one sister, Jettie. The mother, Ada Kirby Sale, died
on Armistice Eve, November 10, 1918, of influenza during the great epidemic.
 A Mother’s Wish 
Before her death she asked her husband Cornelius to give the infant Calvin
to one of his sisters, Vlurma Sale Byrd, and her husband, Titus Dalton Byrd,
in the event of her failure to recover. Mr. and Mrs. Byrd were without children
at the time, and, in accordance with the dying mother’s wish, they adopted the
child and took him to West Virginia when he was only two years old. Mr. Sale,
who worked in a furniture shop, remained with the other children in North