Cannon, civic leader, widow of longtime U.S. senator, dies at 88

Tuesday, May 13, 2003 | 8:44 a.m.

Native Nevadan Dorothy Pace Cannon, widow of former U.S. Sen. Howard Cannon and a civic leader who supported the causes of everyone from children to war veterans, died on Mother's Day following a lengthy illness. She was 88.

Services for Cannon will be 6 p.m. Thursday at Palm Mortuary Eastern. Visitation will be an hour before services. She will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery next to her husband, a decorated World War II pilot and retired Air Force general.

"My mother lived a wonderful, colorful life," Nancy Cannon Downey said. "She traveled the world alongside Dad and really enjoyed being the matriarch of her family, especially when the whole family gathered at their house on holidays."

The Cannons, who met in 1936, were married from Dec. 21, 1945, until his death on March 6, 2002.

He was one of Nevada's most powerful figures on Capitol Hill, serving from 1958 until he was defeated while running for a fifth term in 1982 by Republican businessman Chic Hecht in what many experts have called the biggest upset in Nevada political history.

A highlight of Mrs. Cannon's career in Washington was serving as special consultant to President John F. Kennedy's 1961 birthday party, an event that drew 5,000 guests. She arrived at the party with the president by helicopter.

In 1963 Dorothy Cannon christened the USS Waddell in Seattle.

As a civic leader, Cannon was long involved with groups such as St. Jude's Ranch for Children, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary, the Junior League and the Clark County Women's Democratic Club. She co-chaired the first Mother's March of Dimes in Las Vegas in the 1950s.

She was born Dorothy Pace on Jan. 4, 1915, in Alamo, about 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

Her father was Sidney Pace, a retailer in the mining community of Delamar, now a ghost town. Her mother was the former Margaret Erickson, who was postmistress of Alamo and the piano player for silent films in the town's theater.

After graduating from Pahranagat Valley High School, Dorothy went to business school in Los Angeles and graduated with a two-year associate's degree. She returned to Nevada and worked nine years for a firm that provided services for doctors.

She met her future husband in his hometown of St. George, Utah, while visiting her relatives. He departed for World War II, serving as an 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.

Shortly after he returned home, the couple married. In their early days in Las Vegas, Dorothy was a member of the Las Vegas Service League and the Lioness Club. Upon moving to Washington in the late 1950s she became active in the Senate Wives Club.

In addition to her daughter, Dorothy Cannon is survived by a son, Alan Howard Cannon, of Las Vegas; a sister, Sydney Hedger, of Las Vegas; five grandchildren, Brett Bjornsen, Kayli Bjornsen and Tyler Cannon Downey, all of Las Vegas, Ryan Downey of Henderson and Kyla Cannon of Reno; and a great-granddaughter, Sierra Rylley Downey of Henderson.