Rep. Emerson Succumbs To Lung Cancer

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics) -- Rep. Bill Emerson (R-Mo.), a senior member of the House Agriculture Committee, died Saturday from inoperable lung cancer.

Emerson, 58, was seeking re-election despite his illness and continued to perform his House duties, even though he sometimes needed an oxygen mask to make it to the House floor. He was a pack-a-day cigarette smoker.

Had he lived and been re-elected, Emerson would have been in line to chair the agriculture panel. His colleagues praised him as man interested in serving his constituents.

"He was a leader on nutrition programs and a man who was admired on both sides of the aisle," House Speaker Newt Gingrich said.

Emerson also advocated making English the official language of the federal government and supported a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning.

He had been undergoing both radiation and chemotherapy. Doctors judged the tumor too close to the carotid artery to remove surgically.

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