David Pryor, former governor and senator of Arkansas, is remembered

Little Rock, Arkansas – David Pryor, the former governor of Arkansas and senator from the United States, was memorialized on Saturday during a funeral service by friends, family, and his colleagues, including former President Bill Clinton.

On April 20, Pryor passed away at the age of 89 due to natural causes. The venue for the memorial was a church in Little Rock.

During the ceremony, Clinton remarked that Pryor, with whom he had long collaborated in Arkansas politics, was one of the few individuals in Washington he could rely on to deliver bad news to him.

“You’d be amazed how many people are so intimidated by the office of the presidency that they go into the Oval Office time and time and time again, and they tell the president what they think the president wants to hear, not what the president needs to hear,” Clinton said. “David Pryor wasn’t like that.”

Clinton emphasized Pryor’s years of effort to enhance assisted living facilities.

“He thought that every person was entitled to live their whole lives in dignity,” Clinton said.

Electing to the governorship in 1974, Pryor was a Democrat who held the position for four years before winning a Senate seat. Before opting not to run for reelection in 1996, he completed three terms in office. Mark Pryor, the son of Pryor, was a U.S. senator for two terms.

Along with former U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers and Hillary Clinton, David Pryor was regarded as one of the party’s titans in Arkansas. In addition, he served in the Arkansas Legislature and the United States House. In recent years, he has continued to be involved in public life, having been appointed to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees in 2009.

In 2008, he also held a temporary position as the state Democratic Party’s chairman following the chairman’s tragic shooting in his office.

Both Republicans and Democrats recognized Pryor as one of the most well-liked individuals in the state. As Pryor’s casket lay in state at the Arkansas Capitol on Friday, mourners with relatives and friends flocked to the rotunda, including Republican governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and former governor Jim Guy Tucker.

Pryor always felt that he could do more, according to Clinton, despite the amount of work he accomplished.

“He proved it by the votes he cast, the actions he took, the speeches he made and the life he put together after he left office,” Clinton said. “And when you run the score up, there’s a lot of people who are better off because David Pryor lived. And all of us that were along for the ride, we’re better off, too, aren’t we?”