Howell Heflin

Howell Heflin

Howell Thomas Heflin (* 19th June 1921 in Poulan , Worth County , Georgia ; † 29. March 2005 in Sheffield , Alabama ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party . From 1979 to 1997 he sat for the US state Alabama in the Senate .

biography

Howell Heflin was born the nephew of Senator James Thomas Heflin on June 19, 1921 in Poulan, southwest Georgia. In Alabama, Heflin attended public schools and graduated from Colbert County High School in Leighton . In 1942 he received his Bachelor of Arts from Birmingham-Southern College .

During World War II , he served as an officer in the US Marine Corps . There he was awarded the Purple Heart twice for wounds he suffered in Bougainville and during the Battle of Guam . He also received the Silver Star . After the war he attended the University of Alabama , where he studied law . In 1948 he finished his studies and became a law professor. From 1971 to 1977 he was Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court .

In 1978 , Heflin was elected Senator as the Democratic Party candidate. He succeeded John Sparkman . He served in the Senate until 1997. From 1987 to 1992, he was Chairman of the United States Senate Select Committee on Ethics . During his tenure as a senator, he was proposed by then- US President Ronald Reagan as a judge at the Supreme Court of the United States , but declined the nomination. For re-election in 1996 he could not be elected, his successor was Jeff Sessions .

Heflin died in Sheffield in March 2005 after suffering a myocardial infarction .

Posthumous work

At the University of Alabama at the School of Law, a conference room, the Howell Heflin Conference Room, was named after him. Howell Heflin Lane , a street in Tuscumbia , was named after him.

Web links

• Howell Heflin in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Howell Heflin in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Howell Heflin in the nndb (English)