ment to prohibit busing and criticism of détente with the Soviet Union. Some of his proposals went farther than Ronald Reagan wanted.

By 1979, EAST had decided to run again for office. He said the state needed a "stronger, clearer voice" in the Senate and hinted he would challenge Morgan. On Jan. 26, 1980, he announced he would.

Hardly anyone knew him beyond Greenville and the inner circle of the Republican Party, and he was uncertain how being in a wheelchair would affect campaigning and his public perception.

CONGRESSIONAL CLUB

But EAST was handpicked by Helms, and Helm's National Congressional Club ran EAST's campaign and financed television ads that made East a household name. The campaign was bitter.

EAST'S Commercials tied Morgan, once ranked among the most conservative Democratic senators, with such liberals as Senator Edward Kennedy, D-MA, and George McGovern, D-SD.

The commercials faulted Morgan for voting to cut funds for the B1 bomber and for approving the Panama Canal treaties.

The strategy irked Morgan supporters, but it worked.

EAST won by 10,411 votes, out of about 1.78 million cast.

[From the Winston-Salem Journal, July 2, 1986]

1,000 ATTEND Memorial Service for John EAST

GREENVILLE.-U.S. Senator JOHN P. EAST was remembered yesterday as a forceful figure with strong convictions as his family, friends and colleagues gathered at a memorial service in his hometown church.

A standing-room crowd of about 1,000 packed into the sanctuary of Jarvis Memorial Methodist Church in downtown Greenville to pay their last respects to EAST, who committed suicide in the garage of his home here early Sunday morning.

The Reverend J. Malloy Owen III, noting that EAST, a victim of polio, was paralyzed in his legs and had other severe health problems, told the crowd: "He had to discipline himself. Especially in view of his handicaps, his accomplishments were absolutely amazing. Most of us would have curled into a corner and watched television for the rest of our lives."

In the only reference to EAST's suicide, Owen said, "Although we are stunned and shocked at this tragedy, let us go from this place praising God for this man of strong convictions and amazing courage."

Senator Jesse A. Helms, EAST's political mentor and close friend, sat on the front pew of the church with Governor James G. Martin, their wives and members of EAST's family. Among the mourners were Barbara Bush, the wife of the vice president; Elizabeth Dole, the U.S. secretary of transportation; and at least eight members of the U.S. Senate.

Also present were the Reverend Jerry Falwell and officials of East Carolina University, where EAST's had agreed to resume teaching political science when his Senate term expired in January.

After the 2 p.m. service, which lasted about 20 minutes, East's body was cremated in accordance with his family's wishes. The senator was 55 years old. A spokesman for the funeral home handling the arrangements said the family requested no other private memorials or services.

Owen, the pastor of the church, repeatedly evoked East's image as a serious-almost scholarly-public servant who was willing to match his strongly held conservative principles against often long odds.

"John knew that it didn't take many people to influence a nation," Owen said. "It just took some who knew what they believed and were thoroughly convinced that they were right, and were willing to pay the price and be different."

During the service, Owen read verses from I Corinthians that EAST sometimes cited in his speeches and public statements. At the request of EAST'S family, he concluded the service with the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.

Afterward, many of the mourners waited patiently to offer condolences to members of the immediate family. EAST's widow, Priscilla, better known as "Sis," dabbed at her face with a tissue but appeared generally composed as she greeted the mourners, often with warm hugs. Mrs. East was flanked by the couple's two adult daughters, Kathryn East of Greenville, and Martha Vainwright of Maryland, and EAST's son-in-law.

Falwell, who has known EAST since his election to the Senate in 1980, said he talked with Mrs. East by telephone yesterday.

"I think she's very strong," Fawell said. “She's a real trouper, having stood by him all these years. She's a good lady, and I'm sure God will sustain her."

Virginia "Lou" May, the manager of EAST's two-person constituent services office in Winston-Salem, said her home phone and office phone has been ringing constantly with callers offering condolences.

Mrs. May said she talked with EAST by telephone on Thursday and last saw him on June 4, when she picked him up at the Regional Airport for a rally featuring President Reagan on behalf of U.S. Representative James T. Broyhill, the Republican nominee to succeed EAST.

"He looked better than he looked in 1980," Mrs. May recalled.

"His spirits were real high, and he gave Congressman Broyhill about the best endorsement he could give."

Richard Viguerie, who operates a direct mail firm in Falls Church, VA, and is one of the most prominent behind-the-scenes activists in the New Right political movement, said that EAST's death leaves a political and personal void for him.

"Senator EAST's loss is a major loss," Viguerie said. "There's no kidding ourselves he was a key leader, one of our most important elected officials. He represented a new breed of conservative who was dedicated to making change."

[From the Winston-Salem Journal, July 1, 1986]

JOHN P. EAST

"Tenacious" describes well the attitude JOHN P. EAST exhibited in facing adversity. He fought the odds and won. He achieved a notable academic and political record in spite of polio, which left him confined to a wheelchair. He survived defeats as a conservative Republican before his election to the U.S. Senate.

EAST seemed undaunted by the prospect of leaving the Senate at the end of his first term. He contemplated a return to the classroom at East Carolina University as a political science professor. He was reading proofs for a book

he expected to publish. He appeared prepared to meet battles against ill health or other obstacles with the tenacity he had shown in the past.

His death at the age of 55 would be a shock under any circumstances. His apparent choice to end his life adds a sorrowful note to the culmination of his public career, and makes the loss to family and friends doubly saddening. Such a tragedy can be experienced, but not adequately explained.

Close associates obviously were as baffled as the general public. Perhaps that simply denoted the private nature of the man. EAST never gave the impression of a typical politician, eager for the spotlight's glare.

His approach was more apt to be intellectual, and his positions defined by ideology rather than situations. He may have struggled alone with doubts and depression, but he made no public show of it, nor did he ask for sympathy.

From President Reagan to Governor James G. Martin, leaders expressed shock and sorrow. EAST was lauded as a dedicated public servant and loyal friend. The reaction illustrated the personal integrity and tenacity brought to his public duties.

He had to call on courage early in life. An Illinois native, he was a Marine lieutenant at Camp Lejeune when he was stricken by polio at the age of 24. He earned a law degree from the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Florida. As a young professor at Carolina, he ran on the Republican ticket against Democrat Walter Jones in the 1st Congressional District in 1965. The loss didn't deter him from running again, and losing, the next year. He remained active in GOP politics and defeated Democrat Robert B. Morgan, the incumbent, for the U.S. Senate in 1980.

EAST's record was too brief to allow substantial achievement. He did the best he could in the circumstances under which he served. It would be unfair to say less or more. In one term, he had little opportunity to really distinguish himself. Poor health further inhibited him. By choice or constraint, he never moved far beyond the shadow of Senator Jesse A. Helms, his mentor and model. Detractors called him merely Helms' echo in the Senate. There's no doubt he wouldn't have been elected without the money and campaign direction of the Congressional Club, the organization closely tied to the senior senator. In stepping aside, he endorsed the club's choice as his successor.

The campaign opened by EAST's decision not to run could be further influenced by his death. The appointment to fill out his term will be up to Governor Martin. If the choice, as seems probable, is Representative James T. Broyhill, the GOP nominee, that could bestow an advantage in the general election. The governor, appropriately enough, turned a deaf ear to the speculation for the time being. He praised and ordered state flags flown at half-mast in his honor.

Whatever reasons figured in EAST's fateful last decision lack of courage was not among them. His death is a tragic loss that must be accepted, but which cannot be adequately explained.

[From the Durham Morning Herald, July 1, 1986]

SENATOR JOHN East: Brave and Likeable

One of the unfortunate aspects of Senator JOHN EAST's life was that he rarely moved beyond the shadow of Senator Jesse Helms and their unbending conservatism. Behind Senator EAST's voting record-often scored because it seemed no more than an echo-was a brave and likeable man, one who had

overcome enormous physical setbacks and had proved that the measure of a man is his mind and heart and not his body.

Oddly for a United States Senator, Mr. EAST was a quiet politician who served not to build a biography but to establish his cause. That cause was inflexibly conservative. In the Senate votes, he was Mr. Helms' twin. In personality, he was an opposite.

Mr. EAST was a scholar. He rarely yielded to anger or flaming rhetoric. He thought out his views, cast his votes most predictable, and didn't flinch when criticism rained upon him from the liberal-and sometimes conservative— press.

He seemed steeled against the nay sayers, and while his political ideology was tested severely, his excellent character was never damaged. He was strong and gentlemanly, a man of deep piety and strong social and political convictions.

What built such resolve? Why didn't Mr. EAST occasionally fly off the handle? There may be no easy answer, but his life serves some clues. Physically, JOHN EAST had been wracked by more than his share of pain and suffering. He was a young Marine oficer when he was crippled by polio and confined to a lifetime in a wheelchair.

Lesser men would have been discouraged, but Mr. EAST, who had won the Phi Beta Kappa Key in college, went on to earn law and Ph.D. degrees and become a college professor in political science. He shunned the trendiness of the liberal perspective of political science, and students who eagerly signed up for his courses heard a teacher who could expertly and wisely shake the foundations of the politics of welfarism and a weak defense.

He became a U.S. senator because of hard-hitting television commercials financed by Mr. Helms' Congressional Club-commercials that destroyed the political career of Democrat Robert Morgan without really saying much about JOHN EAST. But if the Tar Heel electorate had been his classroom, North Carolina might have voted for him anyway. Mr. EAST could be powerfully convincing without theatrics. His suasion was didactic rather than volcanic.

It has been said that his life was a profile in courage, and that seems true enough. Yet it pains to think that one so brave, for some unknown reason, could not continue to face life and more pain. If JOHN EAST had chosen life after the Senate he might have been a grand teacher and statesman, a living testimony to man's ability to endure with dignity.

North Carolina has lost a plucky and brilliant public servant.

[From the Raleigh News and Observer, July 1, 1986]

EAST: COURAge on the Right

Ironically for a native of the Land of Lincoln, JOHN Porter East can best be memorialized in terms usually reserved for stalwarts of the Old South-he fought well in behalf of a misguided cause. His death by suicide at the age of 55 deprives the nation's New Right of an intelligent, fiercely dedicated and articulate advocate. And it leaves North Carolina mourning a public servant who gave his utmost to the demanding task of being a U.S. senator.

For EAST, the demands of office were especially harsh. He accustomed himself to the glare of the political limelight even while coping with the physical limitations of his polio-induced handicap, which left him dependent on a wheelchair and crutches. The dignity and courage he displayed as he went

about the arduous routines of Capitol Hill inspired admiration that surpassed differences over ideology.

Yet the rigors of poor health-in particular, the thyroid deficiency that last year sapped his vitality and forced him into the hospital for weeks at a time— may have contributed to his decision to take his own life. Colleagues and associates say the worst phase of the hypothyroldism and the depression it breeds had seemed behind him, but the senator may simply have outdone himself in putting up a brave front.

EAST'S Illinois origins, his physical handicap and lack of a political base seemed to stack the deck against him when he challenged incumbent Democrat Robert B. Morgan in 1980. But he was not running as a traditional North Carolina Republican. He already was a leading theoretician of the party's New Right wing, whose national leader was North Carolina's senior senator, Jesse Helms. It was Helms' organization that catapulted EAST from the political science faculty at East Carolina University into the Senate, relying heavily on campaign advertisements that distored Morgan's record.

EAST in office was a vigorous champion of the New Right's jingoistic foreign policy and its repressive social agenda. For example, the legislation that most clearly bore his personal stamp was an outgrowth of the anti-abortion movement. It attempted to define human life as beginning at conception thus leading to protected status for fetuses, despite the Supreme Court's holdings that women have the right to choose an abortion.

EAST thus bent his considerable intellectual skills not as much to the advancement of individual liberties as to the furtherance of the moral code shared by him and others of his ideological persuasion.

As he neared political retirement, EAST was heading for the security and comfort of academic life back on the East Carolina campus in Greenville, the pleasant city he and his family called home. He could have taken pride in his years of hard work in behalf of his constituents and his dutiful decision not to seek re-election when health problems may have kept him from giving 100 percent.

But despair whose depths nobody had realized drove JOHN EAST to forgo that comfortable and deservedly self-satisfied retirement. His death signifies how high were the personal standards he held.

[From the Greensboro News & Record, June 30, 1986]

JOHN EAST

Senator JOHN EAST was a fighter, which makes the circumstances of his death by apparent suicide all the more difficult to accept. From the age of 24, he fought the debilitating efforts of polio. Though confined to a wheel chair, he was a courageous man who was not easily discouraged.

He fought for his career in Republican politics, too. He was twice defeated for public office before narrowly winning his Senate seat in a bitter 1980 con

test.

Above all, EAST fought for his staunchly conservative political beliefs. Those beliefs were deeply held and finely honed. Like his close friend and mentor, Senator Jesse Helms, EAST represented a new breed of conservative Republican who preached against abortion and school busing and in favor of prayer in the schools. He was a keen debater in the Senate and admired for his intellect, even by those who profoundly disagreed with him.