COLLEAGUES CALL LIMBAUGH A LAWYER'S LAWYER

Friends and colleagues of Rush Hudson Limbaugh, 104, said within hours of his death that other people should measure their personal and professional lives by the standard he lived by.

A Cape Girardeau icon who also achieved international fame as a lawyer touting American jurisprudence abroad, Limbaugh died Monday afternoon.

"It's a sad day for Cape Girardeau," said U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson. "Mr. Limbaugh had a long and valuable life. His passing will inevitably leave a tremendous void. He was a dear friend and mentor of mine."

Emerson said he and Limbaugh shared a hobby of researching Abraham Lincoln. When the two men would meet, they would swap a new story about America's 16th president. "That was one thing we looked forward to," he said.

Emerson said one of his fondest memories always will be the dedication of a new school in Winona. The federal government funded half of the project, he said, and a Winona banker, represented by Limbaugh at age 96, funded the other half of the project.

"So it was Rush Limbaugh and Bill Emerson on the back of a flatbed truck for the dedication," he said. "And he made the most remarkable, beautiful statement. He was quoting off the top of his head about the importance of a public education. He just wove it together so beautifully.

"He was a legend in his time."

Cape Girardeau Mayor Al Spradling III said Limbaugh "made" Cape Girardeau in many ways.

"He put us on the map in a lot of respects," he said. "We hate to see his passing. He paid his dues and helped a lot of young attorneys over the years, which we're all grateful for."

A man devoted to his wife, community and his career was how John Blue, the former managing editor of the Southeast Missourian, described Limbaugh.

"He was president of the Rotary when I joined in 1949," Blue said. "He was one of our better presidents. He also was a top lawyer and a great orator. There was no hemming or hawing with him; it was just forthright speech."

Blue credited Cape Girardeau's growth in the 1920s and 1930s to Limbaugh the community leader. "We experienced phenomenal growth then, and he was responsible for that," he said.

Al Lowes, a Cape Girardeau attorney, lauded Limbaugh, a past president of the Missouri Bar, as a lawyer's lawyer.

"He was a top-notch, all-around lawyer," he said. "He was extremely hardworking and ethical. He was really the epitome of what a lawyer ought to be."

Lowes said other aspiring lawyers should look to Limbaugh and his career when entering the profession. "You just couldn't have asked for a finer man to have been a lawyer," he said.

Another attorney, former state Sen. Al Spradling Jr., agreed: "He has to be one of the most outstanding lawyers that Cape Girardeau ever had. He had more honors bestowed upon him than any other lawyer in Southeast Missouri. He was honored by the Missouri Bar more than any attorney in Southeast Missouri."

Spradling said before he ever went to law school he was a gopher for the only meeting of the Missouri Bar held in Cape Girardeau.

"He was responsible for the Missouri Bar having a meeting in Cape Girardeau because he was president," he said. "It was the first and the last time the Missouri Bar has had a meeting here."

In addition to achieving the top spot in the Missouri Bar, Limbaugh also was a special envoy to India, touting American jurisprudence to that nation during President Dwight Eisenhower's administration.

But even though his legal career took him around the world, he continued to reside in Cape Girardeau where his law practice began in 1916.

Don Thomasson, another Cape Girardeau attorney, said he met Limbaugh in 1953 while serving as prosecutor in Marble Hill.

"I saw him sitting in Ward's Cafe," he said. "I thought he was God. He was such a gentlemen and a great attorney."

Thomasson said he remembered speaking at a celebration a decade ago honoring Limbaugh for 75 years of practicing law.

"A few of us said some good words about Mr. Rush," he said, "and then he spoke. He sounded far more intelligent than any of us."

Morley Swingle, the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor, asked Limbaugh for help while compiling photographs and biographical sketches of every prosecutor who served in Cape Girardeau County, a position created in 1886.

"Rush Limbaugh personally knew every single prosecuting attorney," he said.

Swingle said he didn't have a picture for one of the prosecutors, Robert Whitelaw, who served in the late 1890s. But he did have a picture of a group of unknown county officials taken about the same time as Whitelaw was prosecutor.

"I took the photograph to Mr. Limbaugh," he said. "He got his magnifying glass out, looked at the picture and said, 'No, he's not in this batch.'"

Swingle said Limbaugh was an influence on his life because of his love for the law and the court system.

"He also was the very epitome of what one strives to be as a public speaker," he said.