European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 29, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                John Corneliu Stennis Senate s oldest lion to retire in 88 by Raad Cawthon Cox news service though there is no Licking clock a sense Lime a lusts the big Washington Ollice Olson John Cornelius Plennis. He Senate Lio Nirom Mississippi the air is heavy and still filled with unheard echoes the voices of ghosts Loo numerous to mention perhaps it is an illusion reeled by the quietness of the room a quietness imported irom a younger less hurried world or maybe it is the overwhelming sense of continuity reflected by the Ollice and the Man who occupies it. The Nalion s senior senator. The wooden shelves and Walls Are crowded Wilh 40 years of Memorabilia a baseball and a Gold painted plow Point family pictures along the Marble Leplace mantel lading photographs of other Senate Lions Long dead Stennis. The 86-year-old Democrat who Tost a leg to cancer in 1983. Sits in his wheelchair at one end of the big. Airy office where sen Richard b Russell of Georgia Lor so Many years Titan of the Senate held court. Ii was in this office around this table that Russell in Ellel knighted the then 46-year-old Plennis freshly arrived irom Mississippi in doing so he initiated Plennis into the rituals of the Southern fraternity of senators who. Irom the last Days of reconstruction to the 70s, held the Senate in their Sway. Stennis. Who has celebrated his 40th anniversary As a senator is president pro tempore of the Senate an Honor irom his Senate Peers half places him fourth in line Lor the presidency on the Senate floor where seniority still plays the heaviest part in which desk a senator can choose. Stennis has Long had the desk once occupied by Lellow mississippian Jefferson Davis. On the Side of the desk is a Small patched place. The Mark of where a Union officer rammed his sword in 1861 Aller being told the desk was used by the president of the confederacy. Ii is fitting that Stennis sit there after All he sees himself in a Long line of sons of the South who have served in the Senate but Stennis announced last month he would not seek re election in 1988 the Liming of the announcement 14 months before the election caught Mississippi by Surprise ii left Stennis supporters with a kind of resigned acceptance thai even the oldest lion eventually Steps aside. Mississippi politicians see the fading of Plennis As a once a a lifetime Opportunity most of the rumoured candidates were Only children or were not yet born in 1947 when Stennis first arrived in Washington alter winning a special election to replace sen Theodore Bilbo who had died ii is said Loo  reflects Bill minor the pre eminent political journalist in Mississippi but this is really the end of an Era the political landscape of Mississippi will change forever when Plennis Steps aside Many people thought Stennis would retire in 1982. The year he turned 81 instead he announced plans to run Lor the sixth Lime Mississippi republicans responded by launching an All out Challenge their first Ever against Stennis despite the fact that Ronald Reagan oldest president in the country s history was their Leader they sharpened their knives on the age Issue Stennis s staff grew concerned but Stennis campaigned in All 82 Mississippi counties and won re election by a 2-Lo-1 margin in reality. Stennis s Power peaked in the Early 1970s, before he was slowed by illness and before the Senate Page 18 this it really the end of an Era. The political landscape of Mississippi will change forever when Stennis Steps  metamorphosed irom a place where seniority was held in the highest of All esteem to one where Brasher younger men could make Quick names Lor themselves by preening their egos on television recent years have brought Stennis some rebuffs. The creation of a Commilles in the late 70s to oversee the intelligence agencies reflected on him Lor he once chaired the armed services subcommittee that held thai responsibility. He was the last senator allowed to serve on both the armed services committee and the appropriations committee two of the most powerful in the Senate despite the rebuffs Stennis takes verbal detours to avoid speaking ill of anyone saying i Don t claim any  still there is Little question he feels something has gone out of the Senate perhaps out of the world Stennis claims to have Learned humility Early growing up on the Cotton and cattle Larm in Kemper county where he was born on aug 3.1901 his lather was a merchant and Farmer bul his forebears were a Long line of country doctors a graduate of Mississippi slate University and the University of Virginia s Law school Stennis was an Early student of constitutional history memorizing the entire Constitution when he was an undergraduate. A sign John Stennis  still hangs outside an office in Dekalb miss. The county seat of Kemper county where he practice Law he served in the stale House of representatives and As District attorney before becoming a circuit judge a Post he held Lor a decade. In 1947, sen. Theodore Bilbo a race Bailer of legendary proportions died and a special election was called to ill his seat two of the five candidates wrapped themselves in Bilbo styled racist rhetoric Stennis said Only that he was a segregationist and would preserve the Southern Way of Hie " mostly he talked about farm policy his 27 percent of the vote a plurality that brought Victory was his closest Senate race Ever during thai election Plennis also coined a phrase that stayed with him if elected he said he would plow a straight Furrow All the Way to the end of the Row " the term spoke volumes to the voters of agrarian Mississippi they knew thai when a Man was hired he was always asked if he could plow a straight  ii questioned whether he would work hard and whether he would remain Al his task All the Way to the end of the  by 1954. Plennis had already gained a reputation in the Senate Lor integrity and staunch opposition to integration. That year he co authored the Southern manifesto proclaiming the Region s resistance to school desegregation like other Southern politicians of that Era who saw society change Plennis moderated his views and added Black staff members in 1982. While facing gop the stars and stripes sunday november 29, 1987 pulp flow opposition that was expected to be stiff he voted in favor of extending the voting rights act the next year he voted against a National Holiday on the Rev or Martin Luther King or s birthday there were issues where Plennis trod a different path than most of his fellow conservatives in the late 1950s and Early 1960s, Plennis Long a proponent of a Strong military opposed . Involvement in Vietnam and in 1971. He sponsored along with sen Jacob jails the War Powers act to curtail the president s Power to commit the nation to War without congressional approval. But in the Senate s collective memory. Plennis win be most noted for his integrity in the Early 50s. Plennis wrote the first code of ethics for senators. In 1954 he became the first democratic senator to take the floor and denounce the demagoguery of Wisconsin sen. Joseph Mccarthy. Stennis charged that the red baiting Mccarthy had poured slush and slime on the Senate and that if such conduct was condoned something big and Fine has gone out of this chamber and something of wrong character something representing the wrong course a wrong approach will have  with Stennis Selling the tone Mccarthy was censured. Plennis lives alone in a Washington apartment cares for himself and routinely works longer hours than anyone else in the office arriving earlier and leaving later bul he has a history of physical problems that began in 1973 when he was shot m the stomach by a burglar in his Washington Home doctors said his pancreas was played and that a tougher Man would have died. Plennis walked up the Steps of his Home Sal Down m the Irving room and asked his wife to Call an ambulance. He recovered quickly As he did when his leg was amputated bul a recent Hospital stay Lor minor prostate surgery again brought up questions about his health. And where will the lion go when his four decades in the Senate come to a close his Wile. Coy. Died in 1983 after 55 years of marriage he has not lived in Mississippi in More than 30 years though he still owns the modest family Home in Dekalb. His daughter Margaret Woble. 49. Lives in no in Carolina his son. John Hampton Plennis. 52. Is an attorney in Jackson missa former stale legislator whose political career fizzled and who never fulfilled his lather s Hope that he would succeed him you know i la go Back to  he says his voice dropping again into a kind of reverie there Are other Good places but that s where i started out " and what will he do i have no idea something will come along " foe a moment there is Only the sound of Plennis rubbing his thin hands together. His eyes stare into the burnished Oval of the table before him just say i have applied myself As Best i could "