Deaths : Bentsen’s Father Killed in Crash
EDINBURG, Tex. — The father of Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.) was killed this morning when he apparently drove his car into the path of another car at a rural intersection in South Texas near his ranch, the Arrowhead. Lloyd Bentsen Sr., 95, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ramiro Rosales, 22, the driver of the second car, and his sister, Margarita, about 19, were injured, neither of them seriously. Police said that Bentsen was alone in his car when the accident occurred at 7:20 a.m. and that he apparently had failed to yield the right of way.
The elder Bentsen managed about 42,000 acres of farms and six ranches scattered over the Rio Grande Valley empire he started carving out of the brush and thorn forest in 1920. He became nationally known through television and press interviews during his son’s unsuccessful Democratic vice presidential race last year. He campaigned actively for the senator and made an appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.
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