SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP Oct 26, 2012) – Former U.S. Sen. Gary Hart says George
McGovern was stronger than any political label, despite his
critics’ attempts to dismiss him as a liberal.
     Hart spoke at McGovern’s funeral service Friday.

Hart had had served as manager for ex-U.S. Sen. George McGovern’s failed 1972 presidential campaign.

McGovern, a three-time Democratic presidential candidate, died Sunday at age 90.
     Hart says many people uncomfortable with McGovern called him a
liberal as an insult implying he was weak.

But Hart says “liberals,” in the sense critics intended, did not get elected
and re-elected in conservative states such as South Dakota or fly
dangerous bomber missions in defense of the country.
     McGovern flew bombing runs over Europe during World War II.
     Hart called McGovern “a voice of conscience for our nation in
our time.”

_________________________________

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP Oct 25, 2012) – Vice President Joe Biden says George
McGovern should be remembered as the “father of the modern
Democratic Party,” saying the former South Dakota senator helped
open the party to women, young people and minorities.
     Biden spoke during a prayer service Thursday night in Sioux
Falls honoring the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate, who lost
in a historic landslide to President Richard Nixon.
     Biden says McGovern inspired generations of party leaders and
activists, noting that it was McGovern who inspired him to run for
Senate in 1972.
     The vice president also said McGovern had “political gumption”
when he told his fellow senators in a historic 1970 speech that the
chamber “reeks with blood” because of the many young men dying in
the Vietnam War.
     McGovern died Sunday surrounded by family. He was 90.
    
     MCGOVERN SERVICES-PRAYER SERVICE
     McGovern service ends with clapping, singing
    
     SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – A prayer service to honor former U.S.
Senator and three-time presidential candidate George McGovern ended
with mourners clapping and singing along to a popular folk song by
Woody Guthrie.
     Hundreds of people stood up from their pews and sang along as
the band East of Westreville (WEST-uhr-ville) performed “This Land
Is Your Land” during a prayer service for McGovern, who died at
age 90 on Sunday in Sioux Falls.
     Mourners simultaneously wept while clapping and singing along to
the five-member band. The band was a favorite of McGovern’s.
     McGovern’s funeral is to begin at 1 p.m. Friday at the
Washington Pavilion.
    
     MCGOVERN SERVICES-FRIENDS
     Friends, admirers recall former US Sen. McGovern
    
     SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – Friends and admirers of George McGovern
paying their respects to the former senator and Democratic
presidential candidate during a public viewing say he was a
generous man who stayed true to his beliefs.
     McGovern died Sunday at age 90. He was a political legend in
South Dakota and was very involved in efforts to feed the hungry.
     Thelma Moberly was among the several dozen people who streamed
past the casket holding McGovern during a public viewing Thursday
at First United Methodist Church.
     The 85-year-old Sioux Falls resident says she and her husband
Richard had been close friends with McGovern’s sister, Mildred.
     Thelma Moberly says she was touched when George McGovern called
her in 1995 from Washington D.C. to express his condolences
following news of her husband’s death.
     
     MCGOVERN SERVICES-SOUTHERN POVERTY
     Dees: Obama failed to heed McGovern’s plea on wars
    
     SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – The founder of the Southern Poverty Law
Center says former Senator George McGovern implored Barack Obama to
end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan right after the 2008 election.
     Morris Dees says, “Obama didn’t heed his message.”
     It was a pointed jab from the activist, speaking at a Thursday
night prayer service for McGovern, with Vice President Joe Biden
sitting in the third row.
     Dees commended McGovern’s fight against the Vietnam War and
added that Americans were the true losers when McGovern lost his
1972 presidential bid to Richard Nixon.
     Biden did not visibly react to Dees’ comment but later joined
Dees in praising McGovern’s anti-war stance.
     Obama ended the Iraq war in 2010 and says he’ll end the war in
Afghanistan in 2014.
     Ninety-year-old McGovern died Sunday.
     
     MCGOVERN SERVICES-CAMPAIGN WORKER
     MN man says McGovern has rare courage
    
     SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – A Minnesota man who worked to elect
George McGovern in the historic 1972 presidential campaign says the
former US senator had courage that few politicians have today.
     Fifty-five-year-old Todd Hong was just 15 when he started
working for the McGovern presidential campaign in 1972 in Sioux
Falls. Hong was among the people who streamed past the casket
holding McGovern during a public viewing Thursday at First United
Methodist Church.
     McGovern died Sunday at age 90. McGovern, a staunch liberal,
lost in a historic landslide to Republican Richard Nixon in the
1972 race.
     Hong, of Eden Prairie, Minnesota says he was at McGovern
headquarters election night in Sioux Falls in 1972. He says he and
other campaign workers were devastated when they saw McGovern lost
and started screaming at the television.

—————————————————————————————–

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – The White House says Vice President Joe Biden will attend a South Dakota prayer service for former U.S. Sen. George McGovern on Thursday (Oct 25, 2012).
     McGovern, who lost a 1972 presidential bid to Richard M. Nixon, died Sunday at a Sioux Falls hospice. He was 90.
     Biden and McGovern served together in the Senate. The White
House says the vice president will travel to South Dakota to attend
a 6:30 p.m. service on Thursday at First United Methodist Church in
Sioux Falls.
     A public viewing is planned for 1 to 6 p.m. at the church.
     Funeral services for McGovern are set for 1 p.m. Friday at the
Mary Sommervold Hall of the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science
in Sioux Falls, which seats 1,800 people.

——————————————————————————–

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) – Details are still being worked out for services that will be held later this week for former South Dakota
Sen. George McGovern.
     McGovern, who lost a 1972 presidential bid to Richard M. Nixon,
died Sunday at a Sioux Falls hospice. He was 90.
     A spokesman for the McGovern family, Steve Hildebrand, says the
family is still deciding who will speak at McGovern’s services. He
says he does not know whether the family will release a list of
dignitaries who plan to attend.
     A public viewing is planned for 1 to 6 p.m. Thursday at First
United Methodist Church in Sioux Falls.
     Funeral services are set for 1 p.m. Friday at the Mary
Sommervold Hall of the Washington Pavilion of Arts and Science in
Sioux Falls, which seats 1,800.

 

Previously

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Democratic senator from South Dakota and three-time candidate for president, George McGovern died at 5:15 a.m. Sunday, (Oct 21, 2012) at a Sioux Falls hospice, surrounded by family and lifelong friends.  He was 90.

 The family had said late last week that McGovern had become unresponsive while in hospice care.

 He continued giving speeches, writing and advising all the way up to and past his 90th birthday, which he celebrated this summer..

Funeral services to be held in Sioux Falls with details  announced later.

In 1972, McGovern was the Democratic Party endorsed candidate fro president, facing the GOP endoresed, Richard Nixon.  

Defeated by Nixon, McGovern returned to the Senate and pressed there to end the Vietnam war while championing agriculture, anti-hunger and food stamp programs in the United States and food programs abroad. He won re-election to the Senate in 1974, by which point he could make wry jokes about his presidential defeat.

After losing his bid for a fourth Senate term in the 1980 Republican landslide that made Ronald Reagan president, McGovern went on to teach and lecture at universities, and found a liberal political action committee.

Obituary at Tributes.com by Kristi Eaton, Associated Press

 

 

.