Floyd Davidson Spence

United States Congressman. He served in the U.S. Congress as a representative from South Carolina for 30 years. He was a Korean War veteran and served more than 40 years in the Navy reserve, retiring at the rank of captain. This made him an expert on the military, which served him well as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee . In May of 1988 he had a double lung transplant, and in 2000 he received a kidney transplant, after his lung transplant rejection drugs had damaged his kidneys. During his tenure in Congress, he maintained one of the highest voting attendance records. After graduating from high school, he entered the University of South Carolina on an athletic scholarship, graduating in 1952 with a bachelor of arts degree majoring in English, and continuing his education at the same facility, earning a law degree in 1956 and starting a law practice. His law degree was replaced in 1970 with a Doctorate of Juris. Entering politics for the first time, he was elected in 1956 and served six years in the South Carolina house of representatives. In 1962, he switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, while being one of the first Southerners holding an elected-office. He was not re-elected for the next term. In 1966 he was elected to the South Carolina Senate as the only Republican. With a bitter campaign and a narrow election win, he was elected to the United States Congress representing the Second Congressional District. He served in Congress from 1971 until his death in 2001. Along with the House Armed Services Committee, he served on the House Ethics Committee for 13 years. He remained as chairman of Armed Services until 2000, when the House Republican Conference's internal term limits required him to step down. In 1952 he married and had four sons. In 1978 his wife died. His health declined with advancing stages of COPD, leading to his double lung transplant at the University of Mississippi. This was one of the first double-lung transplants in the United States. He remarried while recuperating and returned to work in Washington D.C. To his display, severe cuts were made to the military's budget. While Saint Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi being treated for Ramsay Hunt syndrome, he suffered from a subdural hematoma, which was surgically removed. He died of complications of that surgery a week later.