Former U.S. Sen. Jim Sasser has died

Jim Sasser, former U.S. senator from Tennessee and U.S. ambassador to China, died late Tuesday.

Former Vice President Al Gore, who served with Sasser in the Senate, said Sasser "represented the best of Tennessee and the best of America."

• "He was a man of outstanding character and conviction, a great United States Senator and later an outstanding diplomat in the truest sense of the word," Gore said in a statement .
• "He was an effective leader not simply because he spoke clearly and persuasively about the initiatives he believed in, but also because he listened intently to the concerns, hopes, and aspirations of his constituents and colleagues."

Zoom in: Sasser served three terms in the U.S. Senate, from 1977 to 1995. He was tapped to serve as ambassador to China in 1996, during the Clinton administration.

Read the Tennessean's obituary

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