Former Arkansas governor and U.S. Sen. David Pryor, a Democrat who was one of the state’s most beloved political figures and remained active in public service in the state long after he left office, has died. He was 89.
"David would be like a fish out of water if he were out of public service," Bumpers, who served 18 years with Pryor in the Senate, said in 2006. "It's his whole life." “His personal style of homespun humor, quick wit, and genuine warmth, combined with his deep knowledge, gave him the ability to pass progressive legislation that was so beneficial to our state,” Beebe said in a statement. “His top priorities of Arkansas Comes First and focusing on the problems our aging population and taxpayer reform made him beloved by his colleagues and his constituents.
The founder and publisher of the Ouachita Citizen weekly newspaper, Pryor started his political career in 1960 with his election to the Arkansas House. He served there through 1966, when he was elected to Congress after winning a special election to the U.S. House. “Following the McClellan race, I abandoned politics, or politics abandoned me,” he wrote in his 2008 autobiography, “A Pryor Commitment.” “I didn’t care who was governor or president. I avoided reading the paper for months on end. I just wanted to be left alone and, like General MacArthur, silently fade away.”