LEE MONTANA NEWSPAPERS
Longtime Montana politician U.S. Rep. John Patrick “Pat” Williams, 87, of Missoula, died Wednesday.
The former Democratic legislator, and the last Democrat Montana elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, grew up in Butte. He served nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1979 to 1997.
He became Montana’s longest-serving congressman.
Williams was first elected to the Montana House of Representatives from Silver Bow County in 1966. After serving two terms in the Montana Legislature, he worked as an executive assistant to Montana Congressman John Melcher.
He was born in Helena in 1937, during the Great Depression.
Pat Williams in Butte.
Courtesy of Aidan Williams
His working parents owned the American Candy Shop in Butte. Because of their round-the-clock schedule, he was raised primarily by his Irish grandmother Lizzy Keough.