obituary

Former Rep. James V. Hansen, a Utah Republican who served in the House from 1981 to 2003, died on Wednesday. He was 86. 

“With Congressman Jim Hansen’s passing, Utah has lost a true statesman. Whether it was in the Navy, in the state legislature, or in the halls of Congress, Jim served with honor and distinction, always putting principle before party and others before self. Utah would not be what it is today without Congressman Jim Hansen. I’m grateful to have known such a remarkable man and even more grateful to have called him a friend,” Utah GOP Sen. Orrin G. Hatch said in a statement announcing the news. 

Just a few days after Sen. John McCain lay in state in the room next door, the Arizona senator and the 37 other former members of Congress who died over the last year were honored at a ceremony in Statuary Hall on Wednesday.

Arizona’s other senator, Jeff Flake, was added to the list of participants following the death of his close colleague.

The death of Sen. John McCain has resonated with so many Americans for reasons far more visceral than his record as a longtime senator or even his stature as an American hero, his longtime friend Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Thursday.

“I think it’s something more intangible,” the former vice president and Delaware senator said at the Arizona senator’s memorial service in Phoenix. “I think it’s because they knew that John believed so deeply and so passionately in the soul of America.”

Sen. John McCain had countless interactions with members of the press during a career on Capitol Hill that spanned more than three decades. CQ's Patrick Pexton and Megan Scully along with Roll Call's Niels Lesniewski share personal anecdotes that reveal a more personal side to the late Arizona senator.

Show Notes: • John McCain, Arizona and What It Means to be Home • McCain vs. Trump: Can the President Give Up the Spotlight? • Google ‘Prematurely’ Renames Russell Senate Office Building for McCain

In September 2017, Sen. John McCain was asked how he would be like to be remembered.

He said he wanted to be remembered as someone who served his country. “I hope we could add, honorably,” he told CNN at the time.

Funeral services for Leonard Boswell, a livestock farmer and Vietnam veteran who served for 16 years in the House, will be held Saturday in his native Iowa, according to local media reports. 

Boswell died August 17 at a Des Moines hospital after suffering complications from a rare form of cancer, according to media reports. He was 84. 

Former Rep. Ronald V. Dellums, a Marine-turned-antiwar activist who represented Oakland in the House and went on to chair the Armed Services Committee, died of cancer early Monday in Washington. He was 82.

Known for championing progressive social movements before they became popular, his career in politics spanned over 40 years, 27 of them in Congress and four as mayor of Oakland.

Steve Komarow, CQ Roll Call’s executive editor and senior vice president, accomplished something very rare in the often cutthroat worlds of Washington bureaus and foreign correspondence: Across a varied and accomplished career of four decades, his calmly confident news judgment and patiently clear-eyed managerial style produced nearly universal respect and virtually no lasting enmity.

At the Capitol and across several war zones, Komarow, who died Sunday at 61, stood out for his unruffled approach to the most dramatic developments, an equanimity in supervising high-maintenance reporters, an easy affect amid intense journalistic competition — and a cockeyed grin when confronted with the constant but mostly ephemeral melodramas of all four high-pressure newsrooms where he played pivotal roles.   

Louise Slaughter dreamed that she would die in the Capitol.

That’s at least according to her daughter, Robin Slaughter Minerva, who spoke during a congressional memorial service for her mother on Wednesday in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.

Former first lady Barbara Bush died Tuesday after a long battle with congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She was 92.

Bush was the wife of former President George H.W. Bush, and the mother of former President George W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. She died after choosing over the weekend to pursue “comfort care" — focusing on symptom control and ceasing medical attention for her diseases.