Charles Halleck, Former House GOP Leader, Dies

LAFAYETTE, Ind. —  Charles A. Halleck, who served two terms as majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives and came to even further national prominence as the co-host of “The Ev and Charlie Show” on television, died today at the age of 85.

Halleck, who died in a Lafayette hospital following a lengthy illness, had served in Congress longer than any other representative of Indiana.

He was first elected to the House in a special election Jan. 29, 1935, to fill the 2nd District seat occupied by Rep. Frederick Landis, who died. Halleck went on to serve 16 terms before retiring in 1969.

Defeated by Ford

He was majority leader in 1946-48 and 1952-54. He was minority leader after that, until Michigan congressman and (later President) Gerald R. Ford defeated him.

In the early 1960s Halleck and the late Everett M. Dirksen, the Senate GOP leader, held regular joint press conferences, usually to attack the statements and policies emanating from the White House under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

The televised conferences came to be called colloquially “The Ev and Charlie Show.”

“As majority leader in Congress during the Eisenhower years, Charlie Halleck carried the President’s program with skill and success in a most important period in our history,” Gov. Robert D. Orr said today.

As a tribute to Halleck’s lengthy service, the federal building in Lafayette was named for him in 1983. He is survived by a son and a daughter. His wife died in 1973.