company to build a plant to provide power to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to replace the power that the TVA sold to the Atomic Energy Commission. He sponsored legislation to require "concentrated industries" to give public notification and justification of price increases, to prohibit automobile manufacturers from operating finance firms, to grant Alaska and Hawaii statehood, and to require nominees for federal judgeships take an oath prior to confirmation that they would not render decisions contrary to the U.S. Constitution. His advocacy of jury trials in civil rights cases helped obtain enough votes to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957, and he opposed the confirmation of Lewis Strauss as U.S. Secretary of Commerce. One of the last bills he introduced was to abolish the insurance rate-making body of the District of Columbia, which he believed was guaranteeing high rates to insurance companies rather than looking out for the public welfare. Later life and death After suffering a stroke in June 1959, O'Mahoney decided not to seek re-election in 1960. He made his last speech on the Senate floor on August 29, 1960; he was brought to the floor in a wheelchair by Senator Wayne Morse, who predicted O'Mahoney would be remembered as the "most effective and able" Senator to try to protect free enterprise. He resumed his law practice in Washington and Cheyenne. O'Mahoney died at the Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, at age 78. He is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Cheyenne. See also List of United States senators from Wyoming References External links Joseph C. O'Mahoney papers at the University of Wyoming - American Heritage Center Digitized collection of Joseph C. O'Mahoney papers at the University of Wyoming - American Heritage Center 1884 births 1962 deaths Politicians from Chelsea, Massachusetts Writers from Chelsea, Massachusetts American people of Irish descent Wyoming Democrats Democratic Party United States senators from Wyoming 1940 United States vice-presidential candidates 20th-century American politicians Writers from Boulder, Colorado Cambridge Rindge and Latin School alumni Columbia University alumni Georgetown University Law Center alumni