Former Sen. Fritz Hollings dies

Ernest F. “Fritz” Hollings, a former U.S. senator and governor from South Carolina, died early Saturday. He was 97. A family spokesman said Hollings died at his home on the Isle of Palms.

Although the Democrat known for his sharp tongue served 38 years and two months in the Senate (from November 1966 to January 2005), the eighth longest term in U.S. history, Hollings spent most of his career on Capitol Hill as his state’s junior senator, serving alongside Strom Thurmond, the longest-serving senator in history, who retired in 2003 at age 100. Hollings sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1984 but withdrew from the race after poor showings in early primaries. He was elected South Carolina’s governor in 1958 as a segregationist. But in his farewell address to the state’s General Assembly in 1963, Hollings asked lawmakers to peacefully accept the integration of the public schools and the admission of the first black student to Clemson University, which happened shortly afterward.

Three of Hollings’ four children from his first marriage to the late Patricia Salley Hollings survive him. His second wife, Rita Liddy “Peatsy” Hollings, died in 2012.