2,500 memorialize former U.S. Rep. Traficant at Powers Auditorium

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Sam and Linda Vasquez of Austintown remember a strike at Packard Electric that dragged on for several weeks before suddenly and inexplicably ending within days.

The conduit between the union and the administration — and the person largely responsible for getting a settlement on the fast track — was U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr.

“They called him in, and we were back to work in a few days. I don’t know what he said or did, though,” recalled Linda, who, along with her husband, worked 30 years for the company.

“He always had time for everybody. He was for the people,” Sam added.

The couple’s sentiments were strongly reflected and echoed during Sunday’s ceremony to celebrate the life and accomplishments of Traficant, who died Sept. 27 after being seriously injured in a tractor accident at his daughter’s Greenford farm. He was 73.

Traficant, a 1959 Cardinal Mooney High School graduate and four-year Mahoning County sheriff, was elected as the 17th District’s congressman in 1984 and served until July 2002.

An estimated 2,500 family members, friends, colleagues and others attended the two-hour gathering at the DeYor Performing Arts Center’s Edward W. Powers Auditorium to hear a series of tributes, including several via video, in remembrance and honor of the former congressman.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.