Thomas F. Eagleton, Briefly a Running Mate, Dies
Thomas F. Eagleton, a former United States senator whose legislative accomplishments were overshadowed by his removal as the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1972 after revelations of mental illness and electroshock therapy, died yesterday in Richmond Heights, Mo. He was 77 and lived outside St. Louis in Clayton, Mo.
The cause was a combination of heart, respiratory and other ailments, a family spokesman said.
Mr. Eagleton took a leading role on legislative issues like presidential war powers, the bombing of Cambodia and home rule for the District of Columbia. But history will probably remember him primarily as a vice presidential candidate for 18 days.
He was in his first term as a senator from Missouri when the presidential candidate, Senator George McGovern, asked that he join him on the Democratic ticket. Mr. Eagleton was a last-minute selection; Mr. McGovern had been counting on Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts to change his mind and become his running mate once Mr. McGovern received the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach. But Mr. Kennedy declined.
After others were considered, the campaign settled on Mr. Eagleton, at 42 a young, Roman Catholic senator with a liberal voting record and the good opinion of labor. That afternoon, on July 13, 1972, Frank Mankiewicz, a top McGovern aide, asked Mr. Eagleton if there was anything in his background that might embarrass the campaign.
Mr. Eagleton said there was not. He did not tell Mr. Mankiewicz that he had been hospitalized three times for depression and that his treatment twice involved electroshock therapy.
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The cause was a combination of heart, respiratory and other ailments, a family spokesman said.
Mr. Eagleton took a leading role on legislative issues like presidential war powers, the bombing of Cambodia and home rule for the District of Columbia. But history will probably remember him primarily as a vice presidential candidate for 18 days.
He was in his first term as a senator from Missouri when the presidential candidate, Senator George McGovern, asked that he join him on the Democratic ticket. Mr. Eagleton was a last-minute selection; Mr. McGovern had been counting on Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts to change his mind and become his running mate once Mr. McGovern received the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Miami Beach. But Mr. Kennedy declined.
After others were considered, the campaign settled on Mr. Eagleton, at 42 a young, Roman Catholic senator with a liberal voting record and the good opinion of labor. That afternoon, on July 13, 1972, Frank Mankiewicz, a top McGovern aide, asked Mr. Eagleton if there was anything in his background that might embarrass the campaign.
Mr. Eagleton said there was not. He did not tell Mr. Mankiewicz that he had been hospitalized three times for depression and that his treatment twice involved electroshock therapy.