James Ralph Sasser

A Senator from Tennessee; born in Memphis, Shelby County, Tenn., September 30, 1936; attended the public schools of Nashville; attended the University of Tennessee 1954-1955; graduated, Vanderbilt University, Nashville 1958; graduated, Vanderbilt Law School 1961; admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1961 and commenced practice in Nashville; served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve 1957-1963; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate in 1976; reelected in 1982 and 1988 and served from January 3, 1977, to January 3, 1995; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1994; chairman, Committee on the Budget (One Hundred First and One Hundred Second Congresses); fellow, Institute of Politics, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 1995; appointed ambassador to the People’s Republic of China by President William Jefferson Clinton, September 22, 1995, confirmed December 14, 1995, and served until 2001; is a resident of Washington, D.C. James Ralph Sasser was born in Memphis on Sept. 30, 1936, one of three children of Joseph and Mary (Gray) Sasser. His father was a United States Department of Agriculture agent who combed back roads, teaching farmers agricultural techniques that might improve their impoverished lives. His mother, the last person to leave the average party she attended, was seen as the family’s politician. James and his sisters, Jo Marilyn and Phyllis, attended public schools in Nashville. He graduated from Hillsboro High School in 1954. After a year at the University of Tennessee, he transferred to Vanderbilt University in Nashville and received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1958. He earned his juris doctor from the Vanderbilt Law School in 1961. In 1962, he married Mary Gorman, a teacher he met as a fellow student at Vanderbilt. They had two children, a son, Gray, and a daughter, Elizabeth. In addition to his son, Gray, he is survived by his wife; a daughter, Elizabeth Sasser; two sisters, Jo Marilyn O’Brien and Phyllis Donnally; and four grandchildren.