Thomas Foley, former House Speaker, dies at 84

Thomas S. Foley, who as speaker of the House sought to still the chamber’s rising tide of partisan combat for five years before it swept the Democratic majority, and Mr. Foley himself, out of office in 1994, died on Friday in Washington. He was 84.

Jeffrey R. Biggs, Mr. Foley’s former press secretary, confirmed the death. Mr. Foley’s wife, Heather, told The Associated Press that the cause was complications of a stroke he suffered last December. She said he was hospitalized with pneumonia in May and had been under hospice care at his home virtually since then.

When he became speaker on June 6, 1989, Mr. Foley, from Washington State, appealed to “our friends on the Republican side to come together and put away bitterness and division and hostility.” He promised to treat “each and every member” fairly, regardless of party, and by most estimations he lived up to that promise to a degree unmatched by his successors....