Has anyone followed this story of the senator who died? (kinda long)
Bill Young's first family emerges to tell their story
http://www.tampabay.com/news/bill-yo...-story/2159685
By Andrew Meacham
Times Staff Writer
One evening around Christmas in 1986, Terry Young heard a noise outside his home in Redington Beach. He opened the door to find his father, Rep. C.W. Bill Young. The congressman had come bearing gifts for Terry, his wife and their four young children.
Terry Young said he relished the opportunity to share such a moment with his father. The two had been out of touch for more than a year after Bill Young divorced his wife of 36 years — Terry's mother — and married his former secretary eight days later.
The son had called and left messages with his father, but they weren't returned. So he backed off.
That December night, Terry asked his father to come inside. The kids were giddy to see their grandfather, who had thrilled them on Christmases past by playing Santa Claus.
"I'm sorry, Terry, I just can't," Bill Young said.
The Republican congressman returned to his car, where his new wife, Beverly, was waiting.
According to Terry, Bill Young never tried to contact him or the grandchildren again.
After Bill Young died Oct. 18 at 82, he was given a funeral befitting a legend. Speakers — including House Speaker John Boehner and high-ranking military officials — praised his skills at crafting legislation and advocating for his constituents.
There was a second theme amid the accolades: Bill Young, family man.
A lengthy photo montage showed the congressman with the three sons (one adopted) and eight grandchildren who resulted from his marriage to Beverly.
But no one mentioned the three children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren from his marriage to the former Marian Ford. Nor were any of those family members included in the photo presentation.
Then an unscripted moment changed the tenor of the service. It happened 1 hour and 39 minutes in, after speeches from two of Young's sons and a Marine corporal close to the family.
One son stayed behind at the lectern.
"I would also like to say that he also has three other children who are adults," Robert Young announced. He gave their names — Pam, Terry, Kimber — and said that they are "not really speakers" and that he "didn't want to put them on the spot."
"Actually, I don't know what their last names are," he added, eliciting nervous titters from the section closest to the stage reserved for family and friends, including more than 30 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Afterward, questions swirled about the congressman's first family. Why were they absent from the service and why were their names not included in most obituaries?
Hardly anyone knew it, but two of Bill Young's children mentioned in Robert Young's statement — Pamela Ernest, 63, and Kimber Butts, 59 — were actually seated seven rows from the front during the funeral.
Terry Young watched it on television from home.
• • •
By the time he showed up at Terry Young's house with the Christmas presents, Bill Young was more than halfway through his second decade as a U.S. representative. He divided his time between Washington and Pinellas County.
He had married Marian on Aug. 20, 1949, when he was an 18-year-old high school dropout and she was 17, entering her senior year at St. Petersburg High School.
By the 1980s Young was a beloved politician known for bringing millions of dollars into the Tampa Bay area and ardently supporting the military. He was well on his way to becoming one of the most powerful and respected politicians in Tampa Bay history.
But the landscape of his personal life had changed.
Early in 1982, when Young was 51, his office hired secretary Beverly Angello, 26. She would work in his office until late 1983.
At some point in between, Marian Young began hearing rumors from friends.
"People called me and said he was having an affair, but I didn't have any proof," said Marian Young, now 81.
The proof arrived on June 21, 1984, when the congressman and Angello had a son — Charles William Young II — while he was still married to and living with his wife.
Marian doesn't remember exactly when her husband admitted that the child was his. "I asked him if he was messing around and he said no," she said. "But then later on he said he was."
After the birth, Marian said, Bill Young asked her to take a ride with him to the hospital to see Beverly's baby. Marian believes he wanted an arrangement where he could stay married to her but still have a relationship with Angello.
"He didn't want the divorce, actually," she said. "But there was no way I was going to hang around."
Within a few months of Billy Young's birth, Marian filed for divorce. It took about a year. A critical part of the agreement, she said, centered on keeping the affair and the baby a secret.
"My attorney said, 'If all of this comes out, the congressman may be in jeopardy of losing his seat. If we can get alimony from him to keep you from letting everybody know about that, that would be beneficial,' " Marian Young said.
"I said, 'Done.' "
The divorce became final Nov. 15, 1985. Its records were sealed.
"I asked my attorney why did he (have the records sealed)," she said. "He said, 'It's because of the child.' "
Eight days later, Young married Beverly in the House prayer room of the U.S. Capitol.
• • •
Less than a year later, Young was awarded the Family and Freedom Award from the Christian Voice, the nation's largest conservative religious lobby.
He received the award because of how he voted on "key moral issues."
It's unclear if the Christian Voice knew of the recent upheaval in his private life. After all, newspapers had barely mentioned his divorce and remarriage, let alone the existence of an out-of-wedlock child.
At that time, politicians enjoyed a greater degree of privacy than they do today — including when they had extramarital affairs.
It was well known, for instance, that President John F. Kennedy had numerous mistresses while the press looked the other way.
There were some famous exceptions — usually when the politician was caught red-handed or the dalliance was tied to an unavoidable news event.
In Young's case, the news of the affair and out-of-wedlock child never emerged publicly.
"It all happened really fast, all the records were sealed and the wife he divorced wouldn't talk about it," said Robert Barnes, who was covering politics for the Times then, and now writes about the U.S. Supreme Court for the Washington Post.
Other journalists knew about the affair and the birth, but believed such issues fell outside the public's right to know.
"I was on the editorial board in 1984, not covering Young per se, but I remember that we were quite aware of what was going on and that it was scarcely if at all alluded to in print," said former Timesjournalist Martin Dyckman. "Those of us at the Times weren't comfortable exploiting a politician's private life so long as it didn't cross with his work."
While getting his secretary pregnant and marrying her raised eyebrows, Dyckman said, "No one suggested that he hired her for lascivious reasons or that she wasn't competent as a secretary."
That frame of mind changed in 1987 when presidential front-runner Gary Hart denied having an affair — and challenged reporters to try to prove that he was.
Some reporters with the Miami Herald did just that — uncovering the relationship between Hart and mistress Donna Rice.
"Before Hart, sex and politics mixed in the printer's ink only when something happened to make it unavoidable," said Dyckman, who is now retired.
After Hart, all was fair game — as Bill Clinton and others would come to learn.
• • •
After the divorce, Bill Young and his first three children drifted apart. Terry Young said he saw his father about seven times over the next 28 years.
"In all of these occasions he was kind and friendly," he said.
An older sister, Pamela Ernest, lives in the Washington area and saw him more frequently. She sent Christmas cards and left phone messages with his staff. Her father didn't always respond and never initiated the contact.
"It got to where I think it was hard to push back when I didn't get the call back," said Ernest, a former manager at Honeywell International's Washington-area office.
Marian Young affirmed her children's accounts of their communication attempts with their father.
"The kids tried to keep in touch with him," she said. "They would call, but they would get no calls back."
Kimber Butts, the youngest sibling, declined to comment for this story. But after Young's death in October, the three children from his first marriage wrote a short family history.
Their document, written by Terry Young and shared with the Times, includes a trove of tidbits that have long since faded from the national narrative.
They called it Bill Young — The Forgotten Years.
• • •
Bill Young's first family emerges to tell their story
http://www.tampabay.com/news/bill-yo...-story/2159685
By Andrew Meacham
Times Staff Writer
One evening around Christmas in 1986, Terry Young heard a noise outside his home in Redington Beach. He opened the door to find his father, Rep. C.W. Bill Young. The congressman had come bearing gifts for Terry, his wife and their four young children.
Terry Young said he relished the opportunity to share such a moment with his father. The two had been out of touch for more than a year after Bill Young divorced his wife of 36 years — Terry's mother — and married his former secretary eight days later.
The son had called and left messages with his father, but they weren't returned. So he backed off.
That December night, Terry asked his father to come inside. The kids were giddy to see their grandfather, who had thrilled them on Christmases past by playing Santa Claus.
"I'm sorry, Terry, I just can't," Bill Young said.
The Republican congressman returned to his car, where his new wife, Beverly, was waiting.
According to Terry, Bill Young never tried to contact him or the grandchildren again.
After Bill Young died Oct. 18 at 82, he was given a funeral befitting a legend. Speakers — including House Speaker John Boehner and high-ranking military officials — praised his skills at crafting legislation and advocating for his constituents.
There was a second theme amid the accolades: Bill Young, family man.
A lengthy photo montage showed the congressman with the three sons (one adopted) and eight grandchildren who resulted from his marriage to Beverly.
But no one mentioned the three children, seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren from his marriage to the former Marian Ford. Nor were any of those family members included in the photo presentation.
Then an unscripted moment changed the tenor of the service. It happened 1 hour and 39 minutes in, after speeches from two of Young's sons and a Marine corporal close to the family.
One son stayed behind at the lectern.
"I would also like to say that he also has three other children who are adults," Robert Young announced. He gave their names — Pam, Terry, Kimber — and said that they are "not really speakers" and that he "didn't want to put them on the spot."
"Actually, I don't know what their last names are," he added, eliciting nervous titters from the section closest to the stage reserved for family and friends, including more than 30 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Afterward, questions swirled about the congressman's first family. Why were they absent from the service and why were their names not included in most obituaries?
Hardly anyone knew it, but two of Bill Young's children mentioned in Robert Young's statement — Pamela Ernest, 63, and Kimber Butts, 59 — were actually seated seven rows from the front during the funeral.
Terry Young watched it on television from home.
• • •
By the time he showed up at Terry Young's house with the Christmas presents, Bill Young was more than halfway through his second decade as a U.S. representative. He divided his time between Washington and Pinellas County.
He had married Marian on Aug. 20, 1949, when he was an 18-year-old high school dropout and she was 17, entering her senior year at St. Petersburg High School.
By the 1980s Young was a beloved politician known for bringing millions of dollars into the Tampa Bay area and ardently supporting the military. He was well on his way to becoming one of the most powerful and respected politicians in Tampa Bay history.
But the landscape of his personal life had changed.
Early in 1982, when Young was 51, his office hired secretary Beverly Angello, 26. She would work in his office until late 1983.
At some point in between, Marian Young began hearing rumors from friends.
"People called me and said he was having an affair, but I didn't have any proof," said Marian Young, now 81.
The proof arrived on June 21, 1984, when the congressman and Angello had a son — Charles William Young II — while he was still married to and living with his wife.
Marian doesn't remember exactly when her husband admitted that the child was his. "I asked him if he was messing around and he said no," she said. "But then later on he said he was."
After the birth, Marian said, Bill Young asked her to take a ride with him to the hospital to see Beverly's baby. Marian believes he wanted an arrangement where he could stay married to her but still have a relationship with Angello.
"He didn't want the divorce, actually," she said. "But there was no way I was going to hang around."
Within a few months of Billy Young's birth, Marian filed for divorce. It took about a year. A critical part of the agreement, she said, centered on keeping the affair and the baby a secret.
"My attorney said, 'If all of this comes out, the congressman may be in jeopardy of losing his seat. If we can get alimony from him to keep you from letting everybody know about that, that would be beneficial,' " Marian Young said.
"I said, 'Done.' "
The divorce became final Nov. 15, 1985. Its records were sealed.
"I asked my attorney why did he (have the records sealed)," she said. "He said, 'It's because of the child.' "
Eight days later, Young married Beverly in the House prayer room of the U.S. Capitol.
• • •
Less than a year later, Young was awarded the Family and Freedom Award from the Christian Voice, the nation's largest conservative religious lobby.
He received the award because of how he voted on "key moral issues."
It's unclear if the Christian Voice knew of the recent upheaval in his private life. After all, newspapers had barely mentioned his divorce and remarriage, let alone the existence of an out-of-wedlock child.
At that time, politicians enjoyed a greater degree of privacy than they do today — including when they had extramarital affairs.
It was well known, for instance, that President John F. Kennedy had numerous mistresses while the press looked the other way.
There were some famous exceptions — usually when the politician was caught red-handed or the dalliance was tied to an unavoidable news event.
In Young's case, the news of the affair and out-of-wedlock child never emerged publicly.
"It all happened really fast, all the records were sealed and the wife he divorced wouldn't talk about it," said Robert Barnes, who was covering politics for the Times then, and now writes about the U.S. Supreme Court for the Washington Post.
Other journalists knew about the affair and the birth, but believed such issues fell outside the public's right to know.
"I was on the editorial board in 1984, not covering Young per se, but I remember that we were quite aware of what was going on and that it was scarcely if at all alluded to in print," said former Timesjournalist Martin Dyckman. "Those of us at the Times weren't comfortable exploiting a politician's private life so long as it didn't cross with his work."
While getting his secretary pregnant and marrying her raised eyebrows, Dyckman said, "No one suggested that he hired her for lascivious reasons or that she wasn't competent as a secretary."
That frame of mind changed in 1987 when presidential front-runner Gary Hart denied having an affair — and challenged reporters to try to prove that he was.
Some reporters with the Miami Herald did just that — uncovering the relationship between Hart and mistress Donna Rice.
"Before Hart, sex and politics mixed in the printer's ink only when something happened to make it unavoidable," said Dyckman, who is now retired.
After Hart, all was fair game — as Bill Clinton and others would come to learn.
• • •
After the divorce, Bill Young and his first three children drifted apart. Terry Young said he saw his father about seven times over the next 28 years.
"In all of these occasions he was kind and friendly," he said.
An older sister, Pamela Ernest, lives in the Washington area and saw him more frequently. She sent Christmas cards and left phone messages with his staff. Her father didn't always respond and never initiated the contact.
"It got to where I think it was hard to push back when I didn't get the call back," said Ernest, a former manager at Honeywell International's Washington-area office.
Marian Young affirmed her children's accounts of their communication attempts with their father.
"The kids tried to keep in touch with him," she said. "They would call, but they would get no calls back."
Kimber Butts, the youngest sibling, declined to comment for this story. But after Young's death in October, the three children from his first marriage wrote a short family history.
Their document, written by Terry Young and shared with the Times, includes a trove of tidbits that have long since faded from the national narrative.
They called it Bill Young — The Forgotten Years.
• • •
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