Former Mo. Rep. Robert Young dies at 83

The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- Former representative Robert A. Young III, one of the St. Louis-area's most influential political voices, has died at age 83 of liver disease.

Young died Wednesday at an area nursing home, Collier's Funeral Home in suburban St. Louis said.

The Democrat represented Missouri's 2nd Congressional District from the late 1970s through the 1980s. He was also a Missouri state senator and state representative.

He is survived by his children and siblings. Visitation will be from 1 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Collier's Funeral Home in Bridgeton. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Monday at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Maryland Heights.

As a congressman, Young, from north St. Louis County, worked to help bring home federal money for Lambert International Airport, Interstate 170, the Mel Price Locks and Dam, the Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse and $64 million to renovate the former Mart Building in downtown St. Louis, which Congress renamed in his honor after he lost his bid for re-election in 1986.

Republican opponents accused him of trading votes on Capitol Hill to get "pork" projects. Said a flattered Young, "If that's a fault, I'm guilty."

Young was the oldest of nine children. He joined the Army in 1943, took part in the landing at Utah Beach on D-Day and was in Gen. George Patton's 3rd Army in the Battle of the Bulge; he was awarded the Bronze Star.

Returning home, he joined Pipefitters Local 562, the union of his father and future father-in-law. Then and now, Local 562 was influential in local Democratic politics. He married the former Irene Slawson in 1947.

He was elected a Democratic committeeman in 1952 and, four years later, was elected state representative. In 1962, he was elected to the Missouri Senate.

In Jefferson City, his close allies included two fellow fitters who also had married sisters of his wife -- former representatives Patrick Hickey and the late Patrick O'Connor. The three men were known in the Capitol as the fitter triumvirate.

As a state lawmaker, he was instrumental in laying the groundwork for the St. Louis Community College system and the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

He was a blue-collar Democrat of the old school -- pro-labor and socially conservative.

In 1986, Republican Jack Buechner beat him on the second try in a district that was changing to Republican territory because of redistricting.

He later worked as a lobbyist in Washington for St. Louis-area issues, including federal money to build MetroLink.

The Mart Building was renamed in his honor in 1990. The 20-story building, built in 1931 by the Terminal Railroad Association, now houses numerous federal agencies.

Irene Young died in 1997, just short of the couple's 50th anniversary.

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Information from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, www.stltoday.com