he filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights Act and supported the Vietnam War earlier in his career, Byrd's views changed considerably over the course of his life; by the early 2000s, he had completely renounced racism and segregation, and spoken in opposition to the Iraq War. Renowned for his knowledge of Senate precedent and parliamentary procedure, Byrd wrote a four-volume history of the Senate in later life. Near the end of his life, Byrd was in declining health and was hospitalized several times. He died in office on June 28, 2010, at the age of 92, and was buried at Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia. Background Robert Byrd was born on November 20, 1917, as Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr. in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, to Cornelius Calvin Sale and his wife Ada Mae (Kirby). When he was ten months old, his mother died on Armistice Day during the 1918 flu pandemic. Byrd was the youngest of four and in accordance with his mother's wishes, his father dispersed the children among relatives. Calvin Jr. was adopted by his biological father's sister and her husband, Vlurma and Titus Byrd, who changed his name to Robert Carlyle Byrd and raised him in the coal mining region of southern West Virginia, primarily in the coal town of Stotesbury, West Virginia. Robert Byrd's biological father Calvin Sale went on to have four more children with his second wife, Ola (Pruitt) Sale. Byrd was educated in the public schools of Stotesbury. Byrd played the violin at the Mark Twain School orchestra and the bass drum in the Mark Twain High School marching band. He was the valedictorian of his 1934 graduating class at Stotesbury's Mark Twain High School. Marriage and children On May 29, 1936, Byrd married Erma Ora James (June 12, 1917 – March 25, 2006) who was born to a coal mining family in Floyd County, Virginia. Her family moved to Raleigh County, West Virginia, where she met Byrd when they attended the same high school. Robert Byrd had two daughters (Mona Byrd Fatemi and Marjorie Byrd Moore), six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. Ku Klux Klan In the early 1940s, Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to create a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Sophia, West Virginia. As a young boy, Byrd had witnessed his adoptive father walk in a Klan parade in Matoaka, West Virginia. While