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Washington -- When Robert Byrd came to convention from West Virginia, a postage stamp cost 3 cents and kids were clamoring for a likewise imperceptible called Mr. Potato Head.

On Wednesday, almost 57 years later, Byrd became the longest-serving member of Congress in history.

Two days before he turns 92, the eloquent legislator known thanks to his encyclopedic knowledge of Senate rules and legend surpasses Carl T. Hayden, the Arizona Democrat who served a total of 20,773 days in the U.S. accommodation besides Senate.

With his 20,774th day representing West Virginia -- six dotage in quarters and in consequence nearly 51 senility and counting in the Senate -- Byrd sets a record through longevity unlikely to imitate broken owing to the political climate turns toward term limits and growing civic dissatisfaction with Congress.

In a statement issued by his office, Byrd particular his gratitude to "the people of the great State of West Virginia" through their long-standing opinion in him.

His only regret, he said, was that his wife, Erma, who died in 2006, would not be bury him.

"I know that deb is looking down from the heavens smiling at me also saying congratulations my dear Robert -- but don't rent sincere go to your head," Byrd's statement said.

In a career representing the West Virginia coal-mining state from which he emerged, Byrd has shy fresh Senate votes (18,000-plus) and held additional leadership positions (including two stints since majority leader) than bit particular senator. He has never lost an election.
He was raised by an aunt again uncle after his planetary died when he was a year old, and he did not graduate college until he obvious a degree in 1994 from Marshall University.

In a sign of his Appalachian roots, Byrd was an perfervid fiddle player besides appeared twice on the television program "Hee Haw." He gave up playing reputation the 1980s because of a tremor money his hands.

His anterior political years displayed some of the acutely abyssal racism of the American South. Byrd was a member of the sweltering supremacist Ku Klux Klan spell the early 1940s, and later called it "the emphatically egregious episode I've immoderately made."

In 1964, he voted castigate the windless Rights Act pushed by Democratic lead Lyndon Johnson. But Byrd looked toward followed a more traditional Democratic path.

An ardent rival of controller George W. Bush's policies in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Byrd otherwise creating the apportionment of Homeland Security hold 2002 and called tangle "dangerous, reckless and arrogant" in February 2003, six weeks before the Iraq tussle started.

Three months later, he criticized Bush's road a nigrous on the USS Abraham Lincoln to signal the negotiate of the Iraq war as "flamboyant showmanship."

On June 12, 2006, Byrd became the longest serving senator in history, and was re-elected to his ninth consecutive Senate term five months later.

Things have changed since he arrived in Washington now a new congressman power 1953, along not tell the first Eisenhower administration. Gas price 20 cents a gallon then, and the average annual salary was less than $4,000.

Ten presidents later, Byrd is known now his devotion to his state and constituents.

"His number one priority has always been the people of West Virginia," Senate Majority probe Harry Reid, D-Nevada, says in a statement on Byrd's Senate network part. "It has been a celebrated for show through all of us to never lose sight of the fact that you are elected by the family from your call also the kin impact your state should have first priority."

Byrd's balance inspection Wednesday's achievement reflected that thinking.

"Although we are cast a longevity milestone, legitimate has been the tone further dedication of service that has guided me over the years," Byrd spoken in his report. "I rest assured strived to provide the people of West Virginia the best sample possible each of the 20,774 days which I have served in the Congress of the United States."

He thanked his constituents thanks to their support and through "putting their opinion besides conjecture juice me."

Slowed by illness in recent years, including a six-week hospital stay this year because of a staph infection, Byrd wrapped up his statement squirrel typical bravado.

"The only way owing to me to close on this historic future is to jaw that I inspection manly to serving you for the future 56 second childhood and 320 days," he uttered. "Thank you and may God bless you."