JOHN DENNIS' LEGACY: EVERYONE WAS HIS FRIEND

Missouri lost a great leader this past week with the passing of former state Sen. John Dennis.

Known for his friendliness, trustworthiness and quietly effective style, Dennis first served 24 years as sheriff of Scott County before being elected to the Missouri Senate in 1976. His tenure in the Scott County courthouse had long before established him as a legend unbeatable in any race for office.

Upon arriving in Jefferson City, Dennis quietly went to work for the people of Southeast Missouri. In four terms in office, his accomplishments were legion.

They include working for funding for the Show Me Center and other buildings at Southeast Missouri State University, the Missouri Veterans Home, the Missouri Department of Conservation office and nature center at Cape Girardeau County Park, the development of a crime lab in Cape Girardeau and a mental hospital in Farmington.

State Sen. James Mathewson, D-Sedalia, a former senate president, told this newspaper that his colleagues nicknamed Dennis "the Great One." Mathewson says Dennis was so effective in securing funding for the university that Southeast became known in the Capitol as "the university that Dennis built."

Former state Rep. Marvin Proffer offered a telling insight into the Dennis appeal when he said that Dennis was "a Methodist and a Mason and managed to win election in an almost 100 percent Catholic area." This harkens back to an era when religious differences were far more pronounced than they are today. But even then, Dennis could bridge them. "He just had a way of pulling people together," said Proffer.

"I never spoke to anyone who didn't like him."

This and the countless other plaudits that have been heard, earned in the rough-and-tumble world of political arena, are certainly deserved. We join so many others in honoring John Dennis for his years of faithful service.