Senators Remember Fellow Colleague

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(STATEHOUSE) - State senators put the session on hold to offer their remembrances of Anita Bowser, the four-term Michigan City Democrat who died Sunday at age 86.

Democrats and Republicans, left and right, joined in remembering Bowser as a woman of grandmotherly kindness, and a senator of keen intellect and ferocious passion for the issues she cared about.

Anderson Democrat Tim Lanane says the former law professor cast herself as a guardian of the constitution. "She cherished the constitution. She didn't see it as just an assembly of words," Lanane said.

Bowser was especially visible in fighting the death penalty and a proposed ban on same-sex marriage. Her final senate speech was one denouncing the marriage amendment. Its author, Wheatfield Republican Brandt Hershman, says Bowser embodied the best of the senate, seeking full debate of issues without making disagreements personal.

Vases of flowers stood on Bowser's empty desk. The door to the senate was adorned with a black bow.

Bowser served six terms in the house before winning her senate seat in 1992. The House has adjourned for the week so legislators can attend Thursday's funeral in Michigan City.

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