DALLAS, May 25 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Rep. Donald Lukens, R-Ohio, whose once promising political career ended in a sexual and financial scandal, has died at 79 in Texas.
Robert Hill Sr. of Richardson, Texas, a former Ohio resident who was named executor of Lukens' estate, said Monday that Lukens, who suffered from cancer, died Saturday in a Dallas nursing home, the Middletown (Ohio) Journal reported.
Lukens served a total of four terms in the House, two in the 1960s, when he left to run unsuccessfully for governor, and two in the 1990s. After he was charged with paying a teenager for sex, Lukens lost the Republican primary in 1990 to John Boehner, now the House minority leader. Lukens was also caught up in the scandal over the House bank.
In between his stints in Congress, Lukens spent many years in the Texas state Senate.
Hill said Lukens was "totally beaten" when he moved to Texas after spending time in prison. But he said Lukens spent his last years as an active church member who taught English as a second language and worked with the American Red Cross.
"He was an absolute pillar in the community," Hill said. "We need more guys like that."
