Neal Smith, Iowa’s longest-serving US House member, dies

By DAVID PITT
Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Neal Smith, a World War II bomber pilot who became a successful lawyer before representing Iowa for 36 years in Congress, has died. He was 101. Smith was first elected in 1958 and remained until 1995, a tenure that made him Iowa’s long-serving U.S. House member. Smith was known as a quiet but effective leader whose greatest accomplishments revolved around the approval of federal funding for dams and reservoirs that safeguarded cities from flooding and created much-used lakes for recreation.