Rest In Peace, Robert C. Byrd

This is the Sen. Byrd that I remember most from my childhood. A man of energy and spunk, and a love of fiddle playing that transcended politics.

My first memory of him is him playing the Orange Blossom Special on the stage at the Wood County Fair. He was brilliant at it, with a twinkle in his eye that said he loved every minute of the challenge.

Thanks to a scholarship from him when I was in high school, I was able to attend Smith College. He is a legend in West Virginia, where you can't go a mile without running into something that's been named after him in pretty much every area of my state.

Whatever his faults, and they were many, he was devoted to three things in his lifetime:  his family, especially his wife of Erma; the great state of West Virginia; and history's lessons of how power, politics, law and the constitution intersect.  His mastery of Senate rules was legendary, but what isn't as widely known is that he taught that history to incoming Senators for years to introduce them, informally, to the intersection of rule intricacies and to Senate history.

Rest in peace, Sen. Byrd.

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