In 1973, Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina was perhaps the most
respected and popular member of the United States Congress. His role in
the televised Watergate hearings as chairman of the Senate Select
Committee led one member of Congress to remark that he was “the most
nonpartisan Democrat in the Senate.” T-shirts were made in his honor;
everyone had a favorite “Senator Sam” story; he starred on an album
entitled “Senator Sam at Home;” his face was pressed on
Newsweek and
Time;
fan clubs appeared; and it became “chic” to have a Southern accent and
spin down-home tales of life in the rural South. Millions adored him.
But Ervin didn’t buy into this heroic public image.
He was
seventy-seven and had already decided he would retire in 1975. He
maintained a listed phone number at his residence in Washington D.C. for
most of his time in the Senate (he only changed it after several
unusual phone calls during the Watergate hearings led his wife to demand
a new unlisted number), and he called himself a simple “country
lawyer.” He lived in the same house in Morganton, North Carolina most
of his life (across the street from his birth home), greeted neighbors
and constituents himself at the front door, and graciously accepted
produce on his porch from local farmers. He would often remark that his
wife of over fifty years kept him grounded. Senator Sam was truly one
of the people.
