Former Senate President Dempsey J. Barron, once one of the state's most powerful political figures, died at his home in Tallahassee Saturday morning.
Mr. Barron, 79, who survived a torpedoed ship in World War II, four decades of political battles and three strikes of lightning, succumbed to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and heart disease.
The end for him came at 4:23 a.m. in his sleep. Wife Terri Jo and nurses from Big Bend Hospice were at his side. He had been bedridden for about two weeks, slipping in and out of consciousness.
Mr. Barron spent his final weeks surrounded by friends and family who spent hours and hours recalling the political fights that made him famous.
In a 32-year legislative career, no Floridian has exercised the kind of power that Mr. Barron displayed. He frequently clashed with governors and other legislators and usually won.
It was a career that bridged the old and new in Florida: from the civil rights era in the late 1950s to a brief attempt at a services tax in the late 1980s; from Democratic Party dominance to the resurgence of the Republican Party; from a time when rural white lawmakers ruled the Legislature to today's urban districts that send more black, Hispanic and female legislators to the Capitol.
Mr. Barron had a hand in writing those chapters, and many more.
Mr. Barron, 79, who survived a torpedoed ship in World War II, four decades of political battles and three strikes of lightning, succumbed to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and heart disease.
The end for him came at 4:23 a.m. in his sleep. Wife Terri Jo and nurses from Big Bend Hospice were at his side. He had been bedridden for about two weeks, slipping in and out of consciousness.
Mr. Barron spent his final weeks surrounded by friends and family who spent hours and hours recalling the political fights that made him famous.
In a 32-year legislative career, no Floridian has exercised the kind of power that Mr. Barron displayed. He frequently clashed with governors and other legislators and usually won.
It was a career that bridged the old and new in Florida: from the civil rights era in the late 1950s to a brief attempt at a services tax in the late 1980s; from Democratic Party dominance to the resurgence of the Republican Party; from a time when rural white lawmakers ruled the Legislature to today's urban districts that send more black, Hispanic and female legislators to the Capitol.
Mr. Barron had a hand in writing those chapters, and many more.
Former Senate President Dempsey J. Barron, once one of the state's most powerful political figures, died at his home in Tallahassee Saturday morning.
Mr. Barron, 79, who survived a torpedoed ship in World War II, four decades of political battles and three strikes of lightning, succumbed to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and heart disease.
The end for him came at 4:23 a.m. in his sleep. Wife Terri Jo and nurses from Big Bend Hospice were at his side. He had been bedridden for about two weeks, slipping in and out of consciousness.
Mr. Barron spent his final weeks surrounded by friends and family who spent hours and hours recalling the political fights that made him famous.
In a 32-year legislative career, no Floridian has exercised the kind of power that Mr. Barron displayed. He frequently clashed with governors and other legislators and usually won.
It was a career that bridged the old and new in Florida: from the civil rights era in the late 1950s to a brief attempt at a services tax in the late 1980s; from Democratic Party dominance to the resurgence of the Republican Party; from a time when rural white lawmakers ruled the Legislature to today's urban districts that send more black, Hispanic and female legislators to the Capitol.
Mr. Barron had a hand in writing those chapters, and many more.
Mr. Barron, 79, who survived a torpedoed ship in World War II, four decades of political battles and three strikes of lightning, succumbed to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and heart disease.
The end for him came at 4:23 a.m. in his sleep. Wife Terri Jo and nurses from Big Bend Hospice were at his side. He had been bedridden for about two weeks, slipping in and out of consciousness.
Mr. Barron spent his final weeks surrounded by friends and family who spent hours and hours recalling the political fights that made him famous.
In a 32-year legislative career, no Floridian has exercised the kind of power that Mr. Barron displayed. He frequently clashed with governors and other legislators and usually won.
It was a career that bridged the old and new in Florida: from the civil rights era in the late 1950s to a brief attempt at a services tax in the late 1980s; from Democratic Party dominance to the resurgence of the Republican Party; from a time when rural white lawmakers ruled the Legislature to today's urban districts that send more black, Hispanic and female legislators to the Capitol.
Mr. Barron had a hand in writing those chapters, and many more.
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