Jim Sasser served 18 years in the US Senate and six years as ambassador Chinadied. He was 87 years old.
His father died of a heart attack Tuesday evening at his home in Chapel Hill, NC, his son Gray Sasser said.
A Democrat, Sasser represented Tennessee in the Senate from 1977-1995. Bill Clinton then he appointed him ambassador to China, a position he held until 2001.
Sasser was elected to the Senate in 1976, defeating Republican Bill Brock, and rose through the party leadership, serving as chairman of the budget committee from 1989 to 1992. -In 1994, Republican Bill Frist, then a political unknown, ran for public office for the first time.
After retiring as ambassador, Sasser became a consultant.
“He believed in the nobility of public service and the transformative power of government,” Gray Sasser and his sister Elizabeth Sasser said of their father in a written statement.
He was proud of his “quiet accomplishments” for ordinary Tennesseans, such as helping with a disability claim or VA benefits.
Originally from Memphis, Sasser grew up in Nashville. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1958 and Vanderbilt Law School in 1961.
He practiced law in Nashville and became a Democratic activist in 1970, managing the unsuccessful re-election campaign of Senator Albert Gore. He was chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party from 1973 to 1976, and he got a measure of revenge by winning. 1970 Senate election over Brock, who ousted Gore.
Sasser was reelected fairly easily before losing to Frist in 1982 and 1988. Sasser was the last Democrat to represent Tennessee in the Senate.
After leaving the Senate, he was a fellow at Harvard University.
Sasser’s children wrote of their father: “His friends and former employees will attest that Dad loved and loved his family, the state of Tennessee, his years in the U.S. Senate, and vintage cars.”
Survivors include Sasser’s wife, Mary, and four grandchildren.