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The seven-term United States Senator from South Carolina, Ernest “Fritz” Hollings, announced his retirement from the senate during a recent press conference. Citing personal reasons, and strong encouragement from his wife, Peatsey, the 81-year-old Hollings confirmed rumors that he will not seek re-election next year. Since December 2003, when South Carolina watched as its other long-time pillar of the Senate, Strom Thurmond, left government service, the state’s power in the Senate has taken a dramatic turn. The next few years in the Senate may be marked more by building seniority rather than wielding power as chairmen of key Senate committees. Fritz Hollings has been serving South Carolina most of his life. Hollings was raised in a family with four siblings and a hard working mother and father. He currently has 4 children and 7 grandchildren. A native of Charleston, he graduated from The Citadel in 1942 and immediately received a commission from the U.S. Army. He served as an officer in the North African and European campaigns in World War II, receiving the Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons. When he returned from the war, he entered the University of South Carolina School of Law and graduated in 1947 -- less than three years after he began.
In 1966, South Carolinians elected Hollings to the United States Senate to fill the unexpired term of Olin Johnson, an office to which he's been elected seven times. Early in his Senate career, Senator Hollings focused on the poverty and hunger that gripped the rural South and urban areas of the country. When asked if he was retiring now rather than face what is sure to be stiff Republican competition, with a smile on his face, Hollings acknowledged the Republican sweep in the last election … and quickly pointed out other Republican sweeps of the state in 1980, 1986, and 1992, all years that he was re-elected to his seat in the Senate.
Hollings added, "We're going to put out a list of accomplishments. The people of this state have been unusually good to me since I started up in 1948, and I've been elected seven times to the United States Senate. Now it's time for someone else to take over." Hollings plans to retire to his home in Isle of Palms and practice law. He plans to continue working. According to Hollings, “I don’t want to rust out. I’m going to wear out.”
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The following year, at age 26, he began his long career of public service when he was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives. In his second term, his peers voted him Speaker Pro Tempore, a post to which he was re-elected in 1953. Two years later, he became Lieutenant Governor. In 1958 he was elected to the highest office in the state. At 36, he was the youngest man in the 20th century to be elected Governor of South Carolina (see photo at right). 
Sounding more like a politician in his prime than a retiree, Hollings had sharp words for some of his Republican foes, including President Bush and South Carolina governor Mark Sanford. Hollings criticized the direction in which Bush is leading the country, as well as Sanford’s attempts to save state dollars by decreasing the number of teachers in the state by 1,000. 