Nevada’s legendary senator Howard Cannon laid to rest

Tuesday, March 12, 2002 | 10:53 a.m.

Howard Cannon's modesty and humble nature belied the powerful four-term Democratic U.S. senator's true personality.

News accounts during his heyday that said Cannon lacked glitz were wrong, former Sen. Richard Bryan, also a Democrat, told 600 mourners Monday at Cannon's funeral at Palm Mortuary-Eastern.

"Howard was anything but colorless," Bryan said. "He owned and rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle."

Bryan called the World War II hero, who died Wednesday in Las Vegas at the age of 90, "the most underappreciated public figure of my time," partly because Cannon refused to promote his accomplishments by issuing press releases.

"Howard was a quintessential 20th-century American," Bryan said. "He came home (from World War II) and decided to make a difference. ... His legacy is assured."

Cannon's daughter, Nancy Lee Downey, said that her father, who will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, was humble "to a fault ... a hero to many people -- the first to offer help and the last to seek credit for it."

As a teenager and young adult, Cannon captured and tamed wild horses and played saxophone in his own Big Band to help pay for law school and flying lessons.

As a World War II Army Air Corps pilot, Cannon was shot down over German-occupied Holland and, disguising himself as a Dutch farmer, avoided capture for 42 days until he rejoined American troops.

As a lawmaker, he was a leading figure in passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Panama Canal Treaty and the deregulation of the airlines and trucking industries. He also helped secure water from Lake Mead for Las Vegas.

Others attending the local services were Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, Nevada Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, former two-term Nevada Gov. Mike O'Callaghan and other current and former local, state and federal leaders.

Former Cannon employee Sara Denton said the senator kept abreast of constituents' problems and often checked with staff about the progress in resolving them. "He had the memory of an elephant, but the heart of a Democrat," she said.

Outside the chapel, photos of Cannon with presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter and of Cannon in Western garb riding a horse in a Helldorado parade were on display, along with campaign buttons and bumper stickers.

"He was a great campaigner -- I watched and learned so much from him," Nevada Supreme Court Justice Myron Leavitt said. "He was just so even-tempered."

Cannon was courageous as a lawmaker, Clark County Democratic Party Chairman Charlie Waterman said. He voted to end the Southern Democrats' filibuster of the Civil Rights Act, helping make it law, and supported the Panama Canal Treaty -- neither of which had widespread popularity in Nevada.

"Howard didn't worry whether something was popular, he did what he believed was the right thing to do," Waterman said. " He was a down-to-earth guy."

Cannon also took care of business in his home state. As a freshman senator on the Armed Services Committee, he helped secure the future of Nellis Air Force Base, which at the time was on the chopping block.

The Nellis Air Force Base Color Guard fired three volleys of seven and played Taps in his honor Monday. Several high-ranking Nellis officers attended the services.

Cannon, the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart, retired from the military as a major general in the Air Force Reserve.

Guinn said Cannon's work as a lawmaker transcended party lines: "As a school superintendent struggling with the desegregation issue, I got a call from Howard Cannon, who offered his wisdom. He didn't care what my party was. He just wanted to help."

The Utah-born son of a banker/farmer, Cannon earned his law degree from the University of Arizona and moved to Las Vegas in 1949, serving 10 years as Las Vegas city attorney. In 1958 Cannon was elected senator by a nearly 13,000-vote margin over G.W. Malone.

After voting in favor of the Civil Rights Act, Cannon returned home in 1964 to find a strong backlash that benefited his Republican opponen, Paul Laxalt. Cannon struggled to a 48-vote victory over Laxalt, who later became a Nevada governor and U.S. senator.

After winning landslide victories over Bill Raggio in 1970 and David Towell in 1976, Cannon was defeated in 1982 by Republican upstart Chic Hecht in what many experts have called the biggest upset in Nevada political history.

Cannon, who spent 10 years in Washington as a consultant before retiring to Las Vegas in 1995, long maintained that, had he won re-election, he would have been able to use his power as the fourth-highest ranking senator to kill the Yucca Mountain nuclear dump proposal in its earliest stages.