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ington.
• "I'm a farmer," Abdnor said in 1986. "I've dug more dirt out of my ears than anyone in Congress. I treasure that heritage."
• Vance Goldammer, Abdnor's attorney and long-time friend, said Abdnor died of natural causes after being in hospice care since May 6.
• Despite three decades in public service, Abdnor wasn't known as a great public speaker and even joked about it in campaign ads. But he served on the powerful Senate Appropriations

Committee and earned a reputation for working hard to help farmers and ranchers and promote South Dakota water projects, including the WEB Rural Water System.
• Abdnor was a four-term congressman when he defeated the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee as McGovern tried to win his fourth Senate term in 1980. Abdnor claimed that the liberal McGovern was out of touch with South Dakota -- saying he couldn't even produce a state driver's license when he applied for a hunting permit.
• Abdnor wound up receiving nearly 60 percent of the vote, part of the Republican wave that swept Ronald Reagan into the White House.
• The highlight of his career, Abdnor said, was serving on the Senate Appropriations Committee because it helped South Dakota get attention even though the state had only one House member to help its two senators.
• "You'd be surprised how these agencies like to talk to people that handle money that might affect them," Abdnor told The Associated Press in 1993. "When you're a small state like South Dakota, it's the only committee as far as I'm concerned when

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