Flags Ordered to Half-Staff for Sam Gibbons

Gov. Rick Scott has ordered state and national flags lowered to half-staff on Saturday at Floridas Capitol, the Hillsborough County Courthouse and Tampa City Hall for former congressman and state legislator Sam Gibbons.

Gibbons, a captain in the U.S. Army who parachuted into Normandy with the 101st Airborne as part of the D-Day invasion, died Oct. 10.He was 92.

Gibbons was elected to the Florida House in 1952, the Florida Senate in 1958 and the U.S. House of Representatives in 1962. He served in the U.S. House until 1996.Gibbons, who was chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, never lost an election.

He was influential in bolstering the start of the University of South Florida, the Southwest Florida Water Management District, and the nation's first Head Start program.