Gephardt's mother dies

ST. LOUIS -- Democratic Rep. Richard Gephardt's mother died Friday night of heart complications, an aide to the congressman said.

Loreen Estelle Gephardt, mother of the Democratic presidential candidate and longtime St. Louis congressman, was 95. Adella Jones, Gephardt's spokeswoman, said she died at a nursing home in St. Louis County.

She'd been a part of her son's political life, even into advanced age. She campaigned for him, knocking on doors, attending rallies and speaking to groups on his behalf.

As recently as February, Loreen Gephardt joined her son as he announced his bid for the Democratic nomination for president.

In 1976, she launched him toward political fame by calling him early on the morning he planned to announce a bid for St. Louis mayor, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Saturday. She told him the newspaper was reporting Rep. Leonor K. Sullivan wasn't planning on running for re-election.

Gephardt filed that day to run for Sullivan's seat.

She once told the Post-Dispatch in an interview the "hand of God" had played a role in her son's political destiny. She said she didn't guide her sons' career choices.

St. Louis Labor Council president Bob Kelley, who said he knew Loreen Gephardt for more than a quarter-century, said she loved helping her son run for office.

"She was a great campaigner who loved to get out and meet people," Kelley said. "She was just an awfully nice person. There were no strangers, even if she didn't know who they were."

She had a reputation for loving to exercise, taking brisk walks and swimming laps in a neighborhood pool into her 80s.

She lived for many years in a Tudor-style house near the city's exquisite and Victorian Tower Grove Park area with her husband, Louis A. Gephardt, who died in 1984.

In addition to her sons, Donald and Rep. Gephardt, Loreen Gephardt is survived by a sister, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Visitation will be Sunday at Hoffmeister Colonial Mortuary in St. Louis. A memorial service will be held Monday at Third Baptist Church.