'Larger-than-life' former Democratic Sen. Ernest 'Fritz' Hollings has died

Former Sen. Ernest F. "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.) died on Saturday at his home on the Isle of Palmas, South Carolina, a family spokesman said. Hollings was 97. The Associated Press called Hollings "one of the last of the larger-than-life Democrats who once dominated politics in the South."

Hollings served on the Senate for 38 years and two months before retiring in 2005, making him the eighth longest-serving senator in the country's history, though he remarkably remained the state's junior senator for most of his tenure — South Carolina's senior senator, Strom Thurmond (R), served for 49 years until he retired at 100, making him the longest-serving senator in U.S. history.

Hollings was known for his "sharp-tongued" rhetoric. Before he served in the Senate, Hollings was the governor of South Carolina. He initially campaigned against desegregation in the state, but ended his term urging the state legislature to accept the integration of public schools. NPR reports that Hollings focused heavily on addressing the issue of hunger in the United States and introduced legislation that created the supplemental food program Women, Infants, and Children in 1972.

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Before Hollings retired in 2005, he criticized the influence of money in politics.

"The cancer on the body of politics is money," he said. "Money, money, money."