NASHVILLE (AP) ‘ In a seven-minute speech Thursday former Senate Speaker John Wilder announced the conclusion more than four decades of service in the state Senate. Wilder, 86, was the longest-serving presiding officer of a legislative chamber in modern U.S. history until he lost his bid for another stint as speaker last year. ‘I love this state, I love the Senate,’ the Mason Democrat said in a speech from the well of the Senate chamber. ‘It’s more a part of me than anything else I’ve done.’ Wilder was Senate speaker and lieutenant governor for 36 years until he lost re-election by his colleagues to Sen. Ron Ramsey, a Blountville Republican.
