Former U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill dies at 84

March 29, 2005
Mary Orndorff and Tom Gordon
Birmingham News staff writers

Former Rep. Tom Bevill, a 30-year member of Congress known for big public works projects and small private deeds for constituents, died Monday. He had turned 84 on Easter Sunday.

Mr. Bevill had a long history of heart trouble and had still been recovering from triple bypass surgery last May. He regained some strength, but his health was never fully restored. He died at his home in Jasper surrounded by family.

Friends and family say the courteous and gentlemanly Democrat hadn't been the same, really, since the death of his wife, Lou, in 2001. They were college sweethearts, married for 58 years.

"Until absolutely the very end, he maintained his sense of humor and a determination to get well," Susan Bevill Livingston, one of his daughters, said. "He had the joy of being with his family because we were very close, and we're going to miss him."

Mr. Bevill represented Alabama's 4th Congressional District, which changed shape over the years but essentially included counties north of Birmingham and south of Huntsville . He was Alabama's longest-serving congressman.

Even before his death, the territory was well marked by Mr. Bevill's legacy. From his 18-year perch atop the congressional committee that handed out billions of federal dollars for public works projects, Mr. Bevill lavished it on buildings, roads, bridges and waterways. Many wound up with his name affixed, becoming permanent billboards that helped persuade district voters to send him to Washington 15 election cycles in a row.

'Third senator':

While the local project funding is annually mocked in Washington as "pork" stuffed in the federal budget, it was celebrated back in Alabama . Because of his clout, Mr. Bevill was sometimes referred to as Alabama's "third senator."

There's the Tom Bevill Lock and Dam and Visitors Center on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in Pickens County; the Tom Bevill Center for Advanced Manufacturing Technology at Gadsden; the Tom Bevill Energy, Mineral and Material Science Research Building in Tuscaloosa at the University of Alabama; and the Tom Bevill Chair of Law at UA, to name a few. Ten college campuses provide links to the Alabama Technology Network, centers that also carry his name.

Mr. Bevill tolerated some gentle ribbing from other members of Alabama's delegation about the named buildings because there were some in their districts, too, said Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville. "Tom Bevill was like my father when I came to Congress," Cramer said Monday.

One of the most profound lessons, Cramer said, was the collegial example he and his Republican counterpart on the appropriations panel set.

Cramer remembers Bevill and a Republican counterpart lamenting increasing partisanship. "He was there with John Myers (Republican from Indiana ) and both of them said, 'Bud, this place brings out the bad side of our behavior and it hasn't always been that way,'" Cramer said. "They were very troubled by that and said they would like to see us get back to some of those days."

Mr. Bevill controlled funding for the nation's nuclear weapons programs and the Energy Department's budget, including the most expensive scientific research project ever proposed, the Superconducting Supercollider. It was killed, unfinished, in 1993 after $2 billion was spent.

Supported ARC, TVA:

Mr. Bevill was a staunch supporter of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Appalachian Regional Commission, two agencies funded by his subcommittee that have long pumped money into the 4th District. He fended off repeated attempts by former President Reagan to kill the ARC - a 1960s "Great Society" program created to help ease the chronic poverty in Alabama and 12 other states - and slash the TVA's budget.

With such broad jurisdiction, Mr. Bevill had enormous influence over his colleagues who, hat in hand, came seeking his blessing on public works projects in their districts. But like the old rich who don't have to flaunt their money, Mr. Bevill always was modest about his power. "It's a good feeling to be in a position to help people," the lawmaker said in a 1992 interview.

Sonny Callahan , then the Republican congressman from Mobile , would later be chairman of the same energy and water panel as Mr. Bevill. "He was a quiet, unassuming man. If you did you not know how powerful he was, you would have never dreamed he was one of the most powerful men in the country," Callahan said.

Mr. Bevill's government-funded largesse was a trademark he came by honestly. He grew up in the small Walker County mining community of Townley during the Great Depression and witnessed President Roosevelt's New Deal programs take hold.

Mr. Bevill said once that he remembered the day a man came to his father's store and said, "I got up this morning and there's not a bit of food in the house." For no charge, Herman Bevill cut the man a slice of meat and gave him a loaf of bread.

Always helping:

Up until his heart surgery last May, Mr. Bevill went to work in a law office with his son, Don, in Jasper. When the younger Bevill would remind his father that charging $25 for a will was too low a price, the older Bevill would respond, "But Don, they can't afford any more than that."

It is one of Susan Bevill Livingston's favorite anecdotes about her father. "He was still helping people," she said.

Growing up, the family would go out to a restaurant and he would always leave with a stack of 3 x 5 cards filled with constituents'names and notes about their problems with Social Security or black lung benefits, more work for the office.

"As far as his character and the man Tom Bevill, he was above reproach in my opinion," said the Republican who replaced him, Rep. Robert Aderholt of Haleyville. "I don't think anybody would ever fill the shoes of Tom Bevill."

Mr. Bevill finished Walker County High School in 1939 and graduated from University of Alabama School of Commerce and Business Administration in 1943. Soon after, he joined the Army and served in Europe during World War II and was a captain in the D-Day campaign.

He finished law school at UA in 1948. While working as a lawyer in Jasper, he served eight years in the Alabama House of Representatives. He first ran for Congress in 1964 but lost to incumbent Carl Elliott in the Democratic primary by more than 3-to-2. Mr. Bevill prevailed two years later when the seat was open, defeating Republican Wayman Sherrer with 64 percent of the vote.

In subsequent elections, Mr. Bevill's margins of victory never fell below 68 percent. What opposition there was mainly came from political novices, including Jim Folsom Jr. - before he was governor - who challenged Mr. Bevill in 1976. Mr. Bevill won with more than 80 percent of the vote.

Corridor X funding:

Mr. Bevill was able to corral federal start-up money for Corridor X, the Memphis-to-Birmingham highway running through the 4th District. Ground was broken in 1983, and the $600 million road is nearly complete.

His single biggest public works project was also the most controversial. The $2 billion, 232-mile Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway didn't deliver the barge traffic from the Tennessee River to the Gulf of Mexico that had been promised, but Bevill remained an optimist about its benefit to the state for years to come.

Funding for the Tenn-Tom fell under the jurisdiction of Bevill's subcommittee, and one year, shortly before its completion, the House came within 10 votes of killing the project. It was around that time that Bevill decided to change the name of his panel from "public works" to "energy and water."

"You'll laugh at this, but frankly the words 'public works' became synonymous with pork barrel," he said in the 1992 interview. "We picked up three or four votes in the House by changing the name of it."

He's also known as the first person in the United States to answer a 911 call. The 1968 demonstration in Haleyville was the beginning of the era of emergency response services.

He announced his retirement in December 1995, saying simply that "30 years is enough."

Mr. Bevill's wife, the former Lou Betts of Margaret, died in 2001. They are survived by their three children, Susan Bevill Livingston, Don Bevill and Patricia Bevill Warren; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.