Barry Morris Goldwater |
| Posted 2009-07-17 by Judy Wight Branson |
| The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, Arizona Saturday, May 30, 1998 Barry dies on own terms It's 'dignity, courage' to the end for rock of GOP - The Grand Old Man of the Grand Old Party is gone. Barry Morris Goldwater, grandson of Arizona pioneers, author, U.S. senator and presidential candidate, died yesterday at his Paradise Valley home. He was 89. His family released a statement saying Goldwater died of natural causes. 'He was in his own bed, in his own room, as he wished, overlooking the valley he loved with family at his side,' the statement said. 'He died as he lived: with dignity, courage and humility.' To most Americans, he was a crusty, shoot-from-the-hip politician, best known for threatening to bomb Communists 'back to the Stone Age'' and for exhorting 'good Christians'' to go after the Rev. Jerry Falwell and 'kick him in the ass.' His 1964 presidential campaign was a disaster that generated obituaries for the Republican Party. But it also paved the way for Ronald Reagan's political rise and established Goldwater's claim as the grandfather of the conservative movement that dominated national politics for most of the 1980s. In his later years, Goldwater became known in his home state as a maverick - even a moderate - who sometimes expressed more support for Democrats than for members of his own party. In 1992, for example, his endorsement of Democrat Karan English helped her defeat a Republican religious conservative in a race for Arizona's Sixth Congressional District seat. The following year, he defended President Clinton's attempt to allow gays to serve in the military. 'You don't need to be 'straight' to fight and die for your country,' he said. 'You just need to shoot straight.' And in 1996, while Goldwater was serving as an honorary chairman of Bob Dole's GOP presidential campaign, he spoke highly of Clinton and accepted a visit from the president when his re-election campaign stopped in Phoenix. 'I don't care if he's a Democrat or Republican,' Goldwater said during an August 1996 visit to Tucson. 'I would rather he be Republican. But I think Mr. Clinton is going to be a good president.' Goldwater was always known in Arizona as a lovable eccentric. He who would rail against left-wing influences in Congress one day, brag about his wife's role in starting the Arizona wing of Planned Parenthood the next, and then call on Evan Mecham, a fellow Republican, to resign as governor before he was impeached. Goldwater's election to the U.S. Senate in 1952 ousted Ernest W. McFarland, then the Democratic majority leader, and signaled to the world that a Republican Party was emerging from what was once a solidly Democratic state. He was proud of his pioneer roots, which he embellished shamelessly. He used to brag about his grandfather, once the sheriff of Prescott, who supposedly arrested the grandfather of former Rep. Morris K. Udall, D-Ariz., for polygamy. According to Goldwater, his grandfather took Udall's grandfather to the city limits, put him on a horse and 'told him to get the hell out of town.' His grandparents, Michel and Sarah Goldwasser, were Jewish immigrants who Anglicized the family name to Goldwater. Michel Goldwater, an itinerant peddler, followed the flood of prospectors into California for the gold rush. He moved to Arizona around the time of the Civil War. He ran a saloon and eventually opened a general store that grew into a chain of department stores. One of Michel and Sarah's eight children was Baron Goldwater, who moved to Phoenix to operate a branch of the family store. In 1907 he married Josephine Williams, and on New Year's Day 1909 she gave birth to Barry. Baron was away on business a great deal, and in his absence Barry looked to an uncle, Morris, for guidance. Morris served in both the territorial and state legislatures and was a longtime mayor of Prescott. Barry said it was his uncle's influence that directed him to a career in politics. Morris and Baron helped found the Democratic Party in Arizona Territory, a twist that Republican Barry said wasn't odd at all. He said Morris was more conservative than he'd ever be. Young Barry was raised as an Episcopalian, the religion of his mother. He took 16 units at the University of Arizona in 1929 but did not graduate. He left college following the death of his father and entered the family department store business. In 1934 he married Peggy Johnson of Muncie, Ind., a marriage that would last until Peggy's death in November 1985. Goldwater remarried in 1992, to the former Susan Schaffer Wechsler, a Phoenix health care executive. He always said his main hobby was Arizona. He hiked all over the state and took thousands of photographs. He was fascinated by the history of Arizona's Indian tribes and was an avid collector of kachinas. He even built his house out of sandstone quarried on the Navajo Reservation. He learned to fly in 1930, beginning a lifelong love affair with aviation that lasted until late in life when a pair of hip implants made it impossible to continue. In 1941, Goldwater entered the Army Air Corps as a pilot stationed at Luke Air Force Base. He was playing golf on Dec. 7, 1941, when he heard the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. 'I left Luke early in the spring (of 1941) and was assigned to Yuma Air Force Base,' Goldwater said in an interview. 'I was the first officer to report there.' He spent much of the war ferrying P-47s across the Atlantic and later flew the 'Hump'' from India to China. He rose to the rank of colonel but continued after the war in the Air Force Reserves, where he became a brigadier general. He returned to the family business after the war. In 1949, Goldwater began his long career in politics. He was part of a committee that put together a 'better government' ticket for the Phoenix City Council in 1949. A day before the filing deadline, however, the committee found itself one name short. Goldwater said he agreed to run, 'and then sat back to see how badly I would be beaten.' He won - in fact, he led the ticket, and then served a second term. In 1950, Phoenix radio announcer Howard Pyle was coaxed into running for governor as a Republican. Goldwater agreed to be his campaign manager and pilot, flying Pyle on barnstorming tours around the state. Pyle won, and two years later, in 1952, Goldwater won a close race for the U.S. Senate by beating McFarland. Just two years later, he found himself defending Joseph McCarthy, whom he'd met before their days in the Senate. Goldwater would say later that McCarthy was an alcoholic who falsely accused people of being Communists. He hurt the country, Goldwater said. But when the Senate finally voted to censure McCarthy, Goldwater voted no. By 1960, Goldwater was an established conservative spokesman in the GOP, railing against foreign aid, 'compulsive unionism,' federal aid to education and big government. He wrote a book, 'Conscience of a Conservative,' that became a bible for Republicans. In 1964, Goldwater voted against the Civil Rights Act, saying it was a federal intrusion on the rights of the states. 'Segregation is disappearing,' he said. 'Great strides are being made. Federal intervention will create another evil by trying to eliminate an evil.' A 1972 report by the Ralph Nader Congress Project said Goldwater ''prefers local control and small government. . . . ''Hence, it is an oversimplification to interpret Goldwater's votes against increased health expenditures, aid to education and so forth as lack of concern for the needs of these groups. Goldwater may very well support some of these measures if proposed by the Arizona Legislature applying to Arizona. 'Nor are his votes against civil rights indicative of a lack of sympathy for the plight of minority groups or a lack of realization that there has been discrimination. Goldwater honestly feels that this is not a place for government to act - that people should act decently toward one another because they want to, not because someone makes them.' In 1964, Goldwater became the GOP nominee for president against incumbent Lyndon Baines Johnson. Goldwater's now-famous acceptance speech to the Republican National Convention won him a place in the history books with the phrase, 'extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.' But it also gave the Democrats an opportunity to paint Goldwater as a far-right extremist. Goldwater always complained that the campaign was one of the dirtiest in history, and he said it marked the beginning of an era of below-the-belt political television commercials. One spot, featuring a young girl pulling petals off a flower while the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion formed in the background, is considered a classic hit piece. The ad didn't mention Goldwater and it ran only once. But it was repeated on news shows, and it helped Johnson portray Goldwater as a man likely to make nuclear war a policy option. Goldwater, whose slogan was 'In Your Heart, You Know He's Right,' won only six states. Even in Arizona he had a close race, carrying the state by only 5,000 votes. Based on his abysmal performance, columnists began writing stories predicting the demise of the GOP. During his Senate career, Goldwater was criticized for his poor attendance. In typical fashion, he said he didn't care. If a vote was important, he said, he'd be there, 'but I'm not going to just put my tail on the floor of the Senate.' In 1968, he campaigned for Richard Nixon and was on the short list of candidates to replace Spiro Agnew when the vice president resigned in 1973 after pleading no contest to a state tax-evasion charge. He defended Nixon against allegations stemming from the June 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building. He did not publicly abandon Nixon even after the July 1974 House Judiciary Committee vote to recommend impeachment. But after the Aug. 5, 1974, release of a tape implicating Nixon in the Watergate cover-up, Goldwater recognized the inevitability of Nixon's downfall. 'I don't think it's Watergate, frankly, as much as it's just a question in people's mind of just how honest is this man,' Goldwater said. 'I hate to think of the old adage, 'Would you buy a used car from Dick Nixon,' but that's what people are asking around the world.' On Aug. 7, 1974, Goldwater and fellow Arizonan John Rhodes, the House Republican leader, joined Senate Republican leader Hugh Scott in the Oval Office to warn Nixon he would be impeached. Goldwater later wrote: 'This was no time to mince words. I said, 'Things are bad.' . . . I could see that Nixon's blood pressure was rising. 'Now was the time to warn him without causing him to make some reckless, suicidal move. I said, 'I took a nose count in the Senate today. You have four firm votes (against impeachment). The others are really undecided. I'm one of them.' Two days later, Nixon resigned. Goldwater went on to pave the way for fellow conservative Reagan to inherit the reins of his party and carry it to the White House for an eight-year stay. Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1968 and remained until 1986. Conservatives began to hail him as a prophet before his time. Goldwater 'galvanized a whole generation of young conservatives into political action,''said former Texas Republican Sen. John Tower. Even Democrats grew to love the old Westerner who spoke his mind and damn the consequences. 'Every day, more and more of his colleagues in the Senate adopt his motto: Ready, fire, aim,' said former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., upon Goldwater's retirement. In 1968, when he launched his successful campaign to return to the Senate, Goldwater said: ''I entered national politics . . . because of a deep concern about the way our country was dribbling down the drain of history. Problems which beset us then, beset us still. . . . During the time that I served Arizona, I spoke out about those concerns. 'Some say I spoke too loudly. I simply spoke plainly.' 'One thing you know: I spoke honestly. I always have, and I always will.' He is survived by four children: Joanne; Barry Jr., a former congressman; Michael; and Margaret. He has numerous nephews, nieces and grandchildren - and an ever-grateful Republican Party. Services - Visitation will be Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Phoenix's Trinity Cathedral, 114 W. Roosevelt St. The funeral will be at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Grady Gammage Auditorium at Arizona State University in Tempe. The Goldwater family suggests that memorial contributions be made to Hospice of the Valley, 1510 E. Flower St., Phoenix, Ariz., 85014, or the Arizona Historical Foundation, Hayden Library, Arizona State University, Box 871006, Tempe, Ariz., 85287-1006. |
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