Lloyd Bentsen: Lloyd Bentsen, a Texas congressman, four-term US senator, Democratic nominee for vice-president and secretary of the treasury during the Clinton administration, held positions of power and influence for more than half a century.
But arguably his most auspicious moment took place on national television during the 1988 vice-presidential debate with his Republican opponent, Indiana senator Dan Quayle. The tall, patrician-looking Texan countered Quayle's self-comparison to John F Kennedy with the magisterial rebuttal, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
The line provided one of the few memorable moments of that campaign.
Bentsen was on the ticket in the first place because his Washington credentials buttressed the Washington inexperience of Michael Dukakis, the former Massachusetts governor running for president. His southwestern roots and his ties to business and the financial community also were considered assets. Most important, he gave the Dukakis-Bentsen ticket a shot at Texas's 29 electoral votes.
Despite those attributes and a stellar Bentsen performance on the campaign trail, the Democratic ticket carried only 10 states in 1988, Texas not among them. But he was re-elected to the senate by the biggest margin of his long career and stayed until 1992, when he became secretary of the treasury in the Clinton administration.
Lloyd Millard Bentsen jnr was born on February 11th, 1921, in Mission, Texas, in a small frame house a few miles from the Mexican border in the Rio Grande Valley. His grandfather had emigrated from Denmark to South Dakota. After the first World War, the Bentsen family moved to "The Valley",driving the 1,675 miles by car.
At the time the area was semi-desert ranchland, and they arrived penniless. But Lloyd snr and his brother Elmer became the biggest colonisers and developers in Hidalgo County, which led all counties of the US in cotton production.
Lloyd Bentsen jnr received a law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1942 and served as an army air forces combat pilot in the second World War, flying 35 missions from southern Italy with the 449th bomber squadron. At 23, he rose to the rank of major and commanded a squadron of 600 men. For his military accomplishments, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and four awards of the Air Medal.
After the war, Bentsen returned to his native Rio Grande Valley and at the age of 25 was elected Hidalgo County judge. He ran for Congress in 1948, and like another young congressional candidate in Massachusetts a couple of years earlier - John F Kennedy - Bentsen used his wartime exploits to campaign advantage. He won easily.
At 27, he was the youngest member of the House, and quickly became part of Speaker Sam Rayburn's inner circle. Lyndon Johnson, then the powerful Senate majority leader, also cultivated him.
Representative Bentsen compiled a diverse record, looking after such traditional Texas interests as deregulation of natural gas and state control of offshore oil but also voting to repeal the poll tax, a device used in the South to discourage voting among African Americans. He was one of only two Southern congressmen to do so. He also proposed using the atomic bomb against North Korea if it failed to withdraw its troops from South Korea. In later years, with embarrassment, he recanted that position.
In 1955, bored with politics and finding it difficult to raise a family in Washington on a congressman's salary, he left Congress and began a business career in Houston.
With his father's backing, he eventually became president of Lincoln Consolidated, an insurance and financial holding company. In 1970, Bentsen sold his business for $22 million (€17.3 million) and declared his candidacy for the US Senate. He went on to beat the Republican candidate, congressman George HW Bush. Although it was characterised as an oil millionaire being beaten by an insurance millionaire, liberals came to admire Bentsen's willingness to set aside differences to build a coalition and to deal fairly with African Americans and Hispanics.
Bentsen often said his proudest accomplishment in the Senate was pension reform. He said he was motivated to push for reform after learning that a Houston man, whose wife taught Sunday school with Bentsen's wife, was fired after 29 years with a company whose pension plan didn't come into effect until 30 years' service.
In 1976, he made a run for the White House, but his campaign went nowhere.
In 1984, his pride was pricked when Democratic nominee Walter Mondale publicly considered him for the vice-presidential nomination but chose Geraldine Ferraro instead.
In the Senate he was the consummate insider who knew the tax laws thoroughly and who was respected by his peers, regardless of party. He also had the ear of Wall Street. Although he was sometimes labelled "Loophole Lloyd" for his ability to draft legislation that gave tax benefits to the oil and gas industries, he managed to avoid impropriety over his long career.
He was widely considered the odds-on favourite for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. But with Bush's popularity soaring in 1991, he decided to stay in the Senate.
Bentsen retired from the Senate in January 1993 to serve as secretary of the treasury under Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1994.
He played a major role in several of Clinton's most significant achievements in the early years of his presidency, including a budget bill and two trade bills.
He returned to Houston but was a regular visitor to the Clinton White House. Something of a father figure to Bill Clinton, he gave advice not only on economic matters but also on how to deal with his impeachment. In 1999, Clinton presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour.
Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Beryl Ann (BA) Longino Bentsen, of Houston, and three children.
Lloyd Bentsen: born February 11th, 1921; died May 23rd, 2006.