Former state Sen. Danny Staples dies of heart attack

EMINENCE, Mo. (AP) -- Former state Sen. Danny Staples, an Ozarks orator with legislative power over prisons and highways, died Tuesday at his home of a heart attack, a family spokesman said. He was 68.

Staples, a Democrat from Eminence, served 20 years in the Senate before retiring in January because of term limits. He previously served six years in the Missouri House.

A former truck driver who for decades ran a family campground and canoe rental business in Shannon County, Staples was known as a colorful speaker, able to spin rustic yarns while promoting or killing bills.

"Danny Staples was one of the true characters in the Senate, but he was also the fiercest protector of his district of any lawmaker in Missouri," said former Gov. Roger Wilson, a fellow Democrat who served alongside Staples as a senator.

Staples and his wife, Barbara, were preparing to depart for a trip in their recreational vehicle when the former senator collapsed Tuesday evening, said Shane Van Steenis of Eminence, a former Senate aide and longtime family friend who confirmed the death.

"Danny had a heart as big as Texas and he loved helping people," said Van Steenis, a former Shannon County presiding commissioner who called Staples "my mentor and role model."

At the height of his legislative power in the late 1990s, Staples chaired committees overseeing Missouri transportation and prisons. He influenced the selection of locations for new prisons and expansions of others, including communities in his district: Potosi, Bonne Terre and Farmington.

"He was an astute senator who worked hard for the people of the Ozarks and Eminence area. He was a power in Jefferson City for many decades and he will be missed by many," Democratic Gov. Bob Holden, who grew up in Shannon County, said in a statement.

Staples often consumed floor time in humorous exchanges with his best Senate friend, Democrat Mike Lybyer of Huggins. As Staples would poke the air with a finger to make an emphatic point, Lybyer would punctuate the presentation with a gleeful "hee-hee-hee."

They didn't make them any finer," an emotional Lybyer said Tuesday evening. "He was like a brother to me."

He represented a swath of rural Missouri best known for curving highways, breathtaking scenery, gushing springs and the abundance of nature, from wildlife to timber. Tourism development was one of his priorities.

Staples described himself as a hillbilly, and once proudly wore onto the Senate floor a headband with a long, colorful feather after a newspaper described him as a peacock among legislative turkeys.

Country and western music was often heard breaking the statehouse silence late at night as scratchy 33-rpm records turned in Staples' office. He sometimes broke into a clogging dance step, which Staples called the "Shannon County Stomp," and laughed while relating stories about family and friends back home along the Jacks Fork River.

But Staples became solemn in a 1997 Associated Press interview when recollecting lessons he learned as a poor youngster in a one-room school, taught by his mother. He expressed pride that an Ozarks boy who "graduated 24th in a class of 23 people could be elected and receive such a high honor."

Besides his widow, Staples is survived by his mother, long-time educator Edna Staples, four children and 10 grandchildren. He was preceded in death by an adult son, Richard Staples.

Van Steenis said funeral arrangements were incomplete but were being handled by Duncan Funeral Home in Eminence.