Tom McCall

In January, Darlene Hooley will become the twelfth  living former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oregon.  Oregon’s oldest living former Congressman is Wendell Wyatt, a Republican who will celebrate his 91st birthday on June 15.  Wyatt, an ex-FBI agent and the Republican State Chairman from 1955 to 1957, won election to Congress in a 1964 special election and easily held the seat in subsequent races; Wyatt won 69% in 1972, running twelve percentage points ahead of GOP presidential candidate Richard Nixon.

Tom McCall was the Governor from 1967 to 1975The later Governor Tom McCall was the grandson of Samuel McCall, a Massachusetts newspaper editor who served as a Congressman from 1892 to 1912, and as the Governor from 1916 to 1918. (Calvin Coolidge was Samuel McCall's Lieutenant Governor and succeeded him in 1918.)

McCall was a newspaper, radio and TV reporter – he worked for The Oregonian -- before entering politics in 1954 in a GOP primary against eight-term Congressman Homer Angell. He upset Angell in the primary, but lost the general election to Democrat Edith Green by a 52%-48% margin. Green remained in Congress for twenty years.

First Lady Audrey McCall in 1971 with her husband, Gov. Tom McCall and Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern (left): Salem Public Library PhotoFormer First Lady Audrey Owen McCall, whose husband, Tom McCall, served as Governor of Oregon from 1967 to 1975, died on Thursday. She was 92.