Former Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Texas, who was in the motorcade when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, died on Tuesday night from a sudden illness, the Associated Press reports. He was 89.
Brooks, who was considered one of the more influential members of the House at the time, lost reelection during the Republican wave of 1994. Brooks was one of the last Texas Democrats who served under former House Speaker Sam Rayburn.
“I never thought being a congressman was supposed to be an easy job, and it doesn't bother me a bit to be in a good fight,” Brooks once said, according the AP.
Brooks is seen in the famous photo of Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in on Air Force One following Kennedy's assassination.
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