Former congressman Dorn dies at age 89

GREENWOOD, S.C. - William Jennings Bryan Dorn, who served western South Carolina in the U.S. House for nearly three decades, died Saturday morning in his home, his family said. He was 89.

Mr. Dorn's family was around him when he died without struggle or pain, his son Johnson Dorn told The (Greenwood) Index-Journal. A cause of death was not immediately released.

Funeral arrangements have not been set.

Mr. Dorn served one term in the U.S. House starting in 1947 before stepping down for an unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate. He went back to the U.S. House in 1951 and served 12 more terms for South Carolina's 3rd District, which stretched along the state's western edge from Oconee and Pickens counties south to Aiken County. He won his final election with 82,579 votes - about 55,000 more than his challenger.

The farmer said he was destined to be a politician. Named for Democratic giant and one-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, Mr. Dorn was talking politics for hours as a young man, his brother Watson Dorn said.

"He always had an ambition, even as a young fellow," Watson Dorn said Saturday. "Bryan was not a scholar, he had no ambitions for a job or college; he concentrated on wanting to be a representative of the people."

Mr. Dorn's political career started in 1938 when he was elected to the South Carolina House at the age of 22. Two years later, Greenwood County sent the Democrat to the state Senate even though he was a year younger than the 25 years old required.

Mr. Dorn's political career was interrupted by World War II. He spent nearly two years in Europe serving for the Army Air Force. He would have an affinity for the military for the rest of his political career, and the veteran's hospital in Columbia is named for him.

"He was known in Washington and in the Statehouse too as Mr. Veteran because he did everything to help veterans, not only in South Carolina, but the nation," former state Rep. Marion P. Carnell said.

Mr. Dorn also fought for civil rights, advocating busing to integrate public schools long before the idea took hold.

"He took the road for civil rights when it was so unpopular in the 1960s," his daughter Olivia Dorn-Kennedy said. "I remember as a young child the Klan approaching our house."

Many considered Mr. Dorn a captivating speaker and he once told his son how he knew when his speech was hitting home.

"He spoke at numerous political barbecues at which someone's sole job was to stir the hash," Johnson Dorn said. "He knew he had the crowd when the hash man stopped stirring."