Iwas first elected to the Alabama Legislature in 1982. George Wallace had been elected to his last term as governor that year. Therefore, my first term as a legislator was Wallace’s final and fifth term as governor.

I had met Wallace during his first term as Governor in 1963. I was a 12-year-old Legislative Page and he was an energetic young governor. He never forgot that day and always reminded me of it in most of our visits.

In 1983, Wallace would have good days and bad. He was in constant pain from six bullet wounds from a crazed would-be assassin who shot him in a Maryland parking lot while he was running for President in 1972. His memory and demeanor were quite diminished from his earlier years. He was also almost completely deaf. A lot of men his age who had fought in World War

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