James Bonney (Napoleon's World)

James Grayson Bonney (February 2, 1911 - October 7, 1981) was an American politician from the state of Kansas who served in the United States Senate from 1957-1981, serving for nine months in 1981 as the chamber's Majority Leader. A Nationalist, he also served as the US Representative for Kansas' vast, rural 1st District from 1949 until 1957. Bonney is best known for seizing control of the Senate Nationalist Caucus in 1977 by defeating the preferred candidate of retiring Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott with the support of Senate conservatives and then led the Nationalist takeover of the Senate in the 1980 elections after eighteen years in the minority. Bonney clashed frequently with the more moderate President Elizabeth Shannon and Speaker J. Marvel Mills and had a notoriously poor relationship in the typically genial chamber with Senate Democratic leader Phil Barton. Bonney died after only nine months as Majority Leader in October of 1981 at the age of 70 after a massive heart attack while at his Washington townhouse and was succeeded as caucus leader by John Behr of Aroostook.