Former U.S. Rep. Tim Valentine, North Carolina Democrat, dies at 89
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Version 0 of 1. Tim Valentine, a North Carolina Democrat who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years before his retirement in 1994, died Nov. 10 at his home in Nashville, N.C. He was 89. The cause was congestive heart failure, said his wife, Barbara Valentine. Mr. Valentine won election to the House in 1982, representing a district that included a swath of largely rural territory outside Raleigh as well as more urban areas, including Durham County. In the House, he joined other members of the North Carolina delegation in defending the state’s tobacco interests, advocating for price supports and against increases in the cigarette tax. He also directed funding to Duke University, located in Durham County. A member and subcommittee chairman on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, he supported federal funding for technological research. As a Democrat in a conservative district, Mr. Valentine sometimes faced difficult political decisions. He initially supported a constitutional amendment to prohibit flag desecration but changed his mind and requested that he be removed as a co-sponsor of the measure, which failed in the House in 1990. “As we went along, I was going to vote for it,” he told the New York Times, “but hoping in my heart that it would not pass.” Itimous Thaddeus Valentine Jr. was born in Rocky Mount, N.C., on March 15, 1926. He served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, graduated in 1948 from the Citadel in Charleston, S.C., and received a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1952. Mr. Valentine served in the North Carolina House of Representatives in the 1950s, was an adviser to North Carolina Gov. Dan K. Moore (D) in the 1960s and served as state Democratic Party chairman before running for Congress. His first wife, the former Betsy Carr, died in 1981 after 25 years of marriage. Survivors include his wife of 28 years, the former Barbara Reynolds, of Nashville, N.C.; four children from his first marriage, Stephen Valentine of Beaufort, N.C., Mark Valentine of Wendell, N.C., Philip Valentine of Nashville, Tenn., and Beth Dollar of Wilson, N.C.; three stepchildren, Mark Berry of New Bern, N.C., and Vaughn Berry-Daniel and Bryan Berry, both of Wilson; 14 grandchildren; and a great-grandson. |