DALLAS — Former U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright, the longtime Texas Democrat who became the first House speaker in the nation’s history to be driven out of office in midterm, has died at age 92.
The World War II veteran and author, often praised for his eloquence and oratorical skills, had been living in a nursing home and died early Wednesday morning, according to Thompson’s Harveson & Cole Funeral Home in Fort Worth.
Wright represented a Fort Worth-area congressional district for 34 years, beginning with his election in 1954. He was the House’s Democratic majority leader for a decade, rising to the speakership in January 1987, to replace Tip O’Neill.
Although three House speakers had resigned before Wright stepped down in 1989, they all served during the 19th century — and none had been under fire for breaking House ethics rules.
The House Ethics Committee investigated Wright’s financial affairs for nearly a year at the prodding of a little-known Georgia congressman, Republican Newt Gingrich, who publicly branded Wright a “crook.” The bipartisan committee charged Wright with 69 violations of House rules on reporting of gifts, accepting gifts from people with an interest in legislation, and limits on outside income.
The committee accused Wright of scheming to evade limits on outside earnings by self-publishing a book, “Reflections of a Public Man,” he then sold in bulk. He was also accused of improperly accepting $145,000 in gifts over 10 years from a Fort Worth developer.
Wright said he hadn’t violated any House rules and vowed to fight the charges. But his support among fellow Democrats quickly eroded.
The Wright episode proved to be a harbinger of the rising partisanship within the House and the personal attacks between House members that would mark the chamber for much of the last quarter-century. Critics said Wright helped fuel the ill will by generally ignoring Republicans as he and other Democrats tended to House business.
James Claude Wright Jr. was born in Fort Worth on Dec. 22, 1922, the son of a professional boxer-turned-tailor. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he left college to enlist in the U.S. Army and flew combat missions in the South Pacific, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Legion of Merit.
He served in the Texas House for one term, and in his mid-20s became mayor of Weatherford, his boyhood hometown. He served in that post for four years, from 1950 to 1954, before his first congressional victory.
Wright was a disciple of House Speaker Sam Rayburn, a fellow Texan, and a confidant of another Texan, Lyndon B. Johnson, who served in the Senate during Wright’s initial years in Congress before becoming vice president in 1961. Wright lost a special election to fill Johnson’s Senate seat.
Wright also was in the presidential motorcade on Nov. 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
“To describe the depth of sadness that engulfed us that day defies vocabulary,” he once said, recalling how the friendly mood of the Dallas crowds turned to “sheer terror and horror.”
In his long House career, Wright authored major legislation in several fields but was most proud of his efforts on behalf of a “pay-as-we-go” interstate highway system and water conservation.
He helped President Jimmy Carter fashion the 1978 Camp David agreement that led to peace between Israel and Egypt, and he played a pivotal role in bringing about a negotiated settlement in Central America that later led to the 1990 elections in Nicaragua in which the leftist Sandinista government lost. Like many Democrats, he had opposed President Ronald Reagan’s emphasis on military pressure to fight Marxism there.
After leaving Congress, Wright spoke around the country, particularly at universities, and was a consultant for a petroleum company. He taught a popular political science course at Texas Christian University for nearly 20 years.
Wright is survived by his wife, Betty, along with a son and three daughters from his first marriage, to Mary Ethlin Lemons, which ended in divorce. His funeral is scheduled for Monday in Fort Worth, with a burial in Weatherford.
Associated Press writer Douglass K. Daniel contributed to this report.
