Former Mine Workers Union Chief Church Dies

    BRISTOL, Va. (AP) - Former United Mine Workers of America International President Sam Church has died.
    Union spokesman Mike Kennedy said the 72-year-old Church died early Tuesday at Bristol Regional Medical Center after a long illness.
    Church, who lived in Pennington Gap, was a native of Matewan, W.Va.
    He began working in the mines in 1965 at Clinchfield Coal Co. in southwest Virginia, quickly rising through the local union ranks
and joining UMWA’s headquarters staff in 1975.
    Church became the union’s international president in 1979 when Arnold Miller resigned for health reasons. He held that job until
1982.
   
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