Former U.S. Rep. Lane Evans (D-Rock Island), who served 24 years in Congress until being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2006, died late Wednesday. He was 63.
A congressman who served with Evans for ten years remembers him fondly. “I think his legacy is the work he did with veterans,” former U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Peoria) says of the Vietnam-era Marine. “He adopted the veterans in his district as an opportunity to see that they received the very best services, medical and otherwise.”
LaHood, also a former U.S. secretary of transportation, first got to know Evans in 1982, when Evans succeeded LaHood’s then-boss, U.S. Rep. Tom Railsback (R-Moline), in Washington.
The current representative from that area, U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-East Moline), is quoted in a statement from her office: “Lane represented everything that is right about public service. He was a champion for our region in the halls of Congress and a strong advocate for veterans and working families across the country. Lane will be sorely missed by all who he touched but his legacy of service will never be forgotten.”