It was big news when Jay Dickey won the election to the U.S. House of Representatives from Arkansas' Fourth District, which includes Texarkana.
It was the first time a Republican had ever been elected to the seat. Our area had been doggedly Democrat since Reconstruction.
That was in 1992. Dickey took office in January the next year and won re-election three times before losing to Democrat Mike Ross in 2000.
Dickey, who died last week at the age of 77, had served as Pine Bluff city attorney and on the state Supreme Court before running for Congress. In Washington he served on the House Appropriations Committee as well as those on Agriculture, National Security, Transportation and Labor, Education, Health and Human Services, and National Security.
He had a folksy style and let the people in his district know that he was on their side, going so far as to sleep in his office rather than renting a second home in the nation's capital.
But he was a shrewd lawmaker and negotiator. He was especially interested in improving transportation in the state and brought in millions for Interstates, including I-49 and I-69. He also took firm a stance against funding for stem cell research that involved the destruction of human embryos. He got a lot of heat for that in some quarters, but he believed it was the right thing to do.
A staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, he was instrumental in denying the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the money to conduct a study on why there were so many firearm-related fatalities in the U.S.-something he saw as a prelude to stricter gun control measures.
But he later said he regretted that position, saying that researching the roots of firearm-related violence could have saved lives and still respected gun rights-much like the way the CDC's research into the use of seat belts and other safety devices eventually led to reduced vehicle fatalities but did not lead to banning cars and trucks.
Jay Dickey lost his battle with Parkinson's disease on Thursday. But he leaves a fine legacy of service to the people of the Fourth District and the state.