Claude Pepper, 1900-1988

Senator, U.S. representative, champion of the elderly, staunch defender of Social Security

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 28, 1999

“Every time we tried to get something done with Social Security, even just tweak it a little bit, we just hoped and prayed that his voice would be muted. He could go out and light a fire under the legions of the deceptively frail. They’d come to the barricades, their eyes flashing with fire, saying, ‘Thank God Claude alerted us to what you were going to do!’ ”