STEWART B. MCKINNEY

STEWART B. MCKINNEY MEMBER OF CONGRESS

A liberal Republican, Stewart B. McKinney represented Fairfield County, Connecticut, in the U. S. Congress for nine terms. He was the first congressperson known to have died of AIDS.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, January 30, 1931, McKinney was the son of a rich family that moved to Fairfield, Connecticut, when he was a child. He served as a noncom in the Air Force from 1951 to 1955 and graduated from Yale in 1958. After working in real estate and running a tire business, he was elected to Congress in 1970. Although he was among the richest men in Congress and served a wealthy district, he was a consistent champion of the poor and homeless and strongly supported federal housing programs. Known for high principles, compassion, and character, McKinney won the respect of his colleagues as well as his constituents.

McKinney, a down-to-earth man who described himself as "a former tire salesman," was married and the father of five children. When he died of AIDS on May 7, 1987, his doctor said he had probably contracted the virus from blood transfusions during surgery in 1979, but the Washington Post revealed that although McKinney was discreet, he was a member of gay social circles on Capitol Hill and had had homosexual relationships, a more likely avenue of his HIV infection.

McKinney's death may have awakened a few of his colleagues in Congress to the gravity of the AIDS epidemic. He wished the cause of his death to be known, and his wife said, without recrimination, "To find a cure for this disease, however, we must look at how people get it."

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