COLUMBIA, S.C. — Rep. Floyd Spence, a soft-spoken opponent of big government but tireless advocate of the military, died a week after undergoing surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. He was 73.
During his 30 years in Congress, the South Carolina lawmaker was known for his amiable ways — and for a rare double-lung transplant he underwent in 1988. Earlier, as a state legislator in 1962, he became the first Democrat in the state General Assembly to defect to the Republican Party.
"He was a leader of great courage and determination," President Bush said of Spence, who died Thursday night at St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital in Jackson, Miss.
A military color guard was to accompany Spence's body and his family members back to South Carolina aboard a transport plane today. Plans called for his body to lie in state at the South Carolina Statehouse before a service with full military honors.
Spence drew his passion for the military from his own experiences. After graduating from the University of South Carolina in 1952, Spence was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy.
He returned to South Carolina and earned a law degree before being elected as a Democrat to the state House of Representatives in 1956. In 1962, he furthered the development of the two-party system in South Carolina when he switched to the GOP.
Spence became chairman of the House Armed Services Committee when Republicans took control of the House in 1995 but had to give it up in January because of House rules that limited chairmanships to six years.
"I make no bones about the fact my No. 1 priority is defending this country," he said in a 1998 interview.
South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges praised Spence's service to his country.
"His tireless efforts on behalf of our national defense are a testimony to his enduring will to serve and to triumph in the face of adversity," said Hodges, plans to call for a special election to fill Spence's seat.
Primaries will be held 11 weeks after House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., declares the seat vacant. The special election will come seven weeks later.
During Spence's tenure in Congress, he maintained one of the highest voting attendance records but was often criticized by opponents for lack of his own legislation.
"He was the voice against the big Washington government," said Blease Graham, a political scientist at the University of South Carolina. "That's why his record is as obscure as it is. He's not going to be introducing federal legislation."
At age 60, Spence had a double-lung transplant after years of battling emphysema. At that time, lung transplants were rare. The lungs came from an 18-year-old man who died in a motorcycle crash.
"I feel like I've got to live two lives," he said afterward. "I've got to justify what his lungs are for me. ... I want to live for him, too."
A decade later, his kidneys began to shut down because of the anti-rejection drugs used for the lung transplant. He received a kidney transplanted from his son David in May 2000.
David was one of four sons of Spence and his late wife, Lula. After his lung transplant, he seized the chance he called "a miracle" to marry 37-year-old Debbie Williams in his hospital room. She survives, as do David and his other sons, Zack, Benjamin and Caldwell.