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Neal Smith, Iowa's longest-serving US House member, dies

Bill Richardson & Neal Smith
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DES MOINES, Iowa (KMTV) — Neal Smith, a World War II bomber pilot who became a successful lawyer before representing Iowa for 36 years in Congress, has died. He was 101.

Smith was first elected in 1958 and remained until 1995, a tenure that made him Iowa's long-serving U.S. House member.

Smith was known as a quiet but effective leader whose greatest accomplishments revolved around the approval of federal funding for dams and reservoirs that safeguarded cities from flooding and created much-used lakes for recreation.

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