H.T. Higgins remembers Tom Foley coming to his parents’ house in the early 1960s, smoking and talking politics for hours with his dad, Hank.

“It was so smoky you could hardly see across the room,” said Higgins, who was then just a young cousin to Foley. His dad and Foley munched on milk and cookies – they weren’t coffee drinkers – fresh from the oven.

H.T. Higgins and his mother, Mary Lou, sat in the front row of the Bing Crosby Theater in downtown Spokane on Wednesday night, its lobby transformed into an exhibit honoring the Eastern Washington Democrat who rose to the highest ranks of Congress during a tenure that spanned seven presidencies. But the overwhelming picture painted during the living tribute to Foley, 84, was of a vivid storyteller, a political straight shooter and a rare beacon of bipartisanship absent in today’s political climate. Kip Hill, SR

When I was a baby Tom Foley came to my parent's house and delivered an baby care book. He autographed. I still have it.

Are there currently any political statesman like Tom Foley serving in Congress?

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