LUFKIN, Texas -- Charlie Wilson, the former U.S. congressman from Texas whose funding of Afghanistan’s resistance to the Soviet Union was chronicled in the movie "Charlie Wilson’s War," has died. He was 76.
Wilson died Wednesday at Memorial Medical Center-Lufkin after he started having difficulty breathing while attending a meeting in the eastern Texas town where he lived, said hospital spokeswoman Yana Ogletree. Wilson was pronounced dead on arrival, and the preliminary cause of death was cardiopulmonary arrest, she said.
Wilson represented the 2nd district in east Texas in the U.S. House from 1973 to 1996.
"Charlie Wilson's War" was about Wilson’s efforts to arm Afghani mujahedeen during their war against the Soviet Union. Wilson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, helped secure money for weapons.
"I was heart sick when I heard the news today of Charlie’s passing. He was truly a great American and so underappreciated," said Houstonian Joanne Herring, who worked with Wilson to arm the Afghans. "His magical ways and enthusiasm for life infected everyone around him."
Wilson was known as "Good Time Charlie" when he was in Washington. It’s a nickname his longtime friend Herring said he embraced.
“Charlie wasn’t champagne or caviar, not from East Texas honey, but he was good shot of scotch,” she said. “Charlie found fun in every moment of living. That was the thing. He had no bad days. If you didn’t have a good day then he went out and found one.”
