I knew Charlie Wilson for many years, first as a State Senator and then as = a Congressman and I liked him very much. He was fun to be around and he k= new the ways of the Legislature and the Congress. I use to party with him a= nd spend time in his DC office with Charlies girls, all of whom were smart = and good looking. I also knew Joanne King Harring when she was married to B= ob Herring , who I worked for. =20

Charlie was an orginal and I am happy to have known him.=20

Here is the Houston Chronicle story of his life and death.

"Charlie Wilson, the larger-than-life Texas congressman whose efforts to fu= nd Afghanistan's resistance to the Soviet Union in the 1980s were made into= a movie, died Wednesday of heart failure.

=20

He was 76, and for a little more than two years had been living with a tran= splanted heart from Houston's Methodist Hospital.=20

Old friends said Wilson was most proud of his role in defeating the Soviets= in Afghanistan , bringing a Veterans Administration clinic home to Lufkin,= and helping to create the Big Thicket National Preserve. But they said he = represented more than all of that.=20

=E2=80=9CFirst he was a wonderfully kind and generous person,=E2=80=9D said= John Wing, who traveled with Wilson to Afghanistan and Pakistan and remain= ed close to him. =E2=80=9CThat kindness and generosity extended to everyone= , no matter whether they were president of a country or a person down and o= ut and looking for a job. Charlie saw no colors, no difference in people's = worldly standing. He just saw people.=E2=80=9D=20

Wing notes that Wilson represented the 2nd District in East Texas in the U.= S. House of Representatives from 1973 through 1996, and that he was always = ranked first or second in constituent services.=20

=E2=80=9CAnd that was a damn good thing because he was not the prototypical= East Texan,=E2=80=9D said Wing, founder and chairman of Wing Aviation. =E2= =80=9CThere's not a lot worth recording about his behavior or mine when we = were both single.=E2=80=9D=20

Wing says Wilson gave up drinking and womanizing when he fell head over hee= ls for his wife, Barbara. They recently celebrated their 11th wedding anniv= ersary.=20

Pain and praise=20 Wednesday afternoon, as high-powered politicians sang Wilson's praises, it = was his old friends who sounded deeply pained.=20

One was Buddy Temple, who knew Wilson since 1964 and was with him when he c= ollapsed.=20

Wilson was born June 1, 1933, in the small East Texas town of Trinity.=20

Temple can't remember exactly how old Wilson was, perhaps 13, when he enter= ed politics.=20

Wilson himself told the story many times =E2=80=94 his beloved dog used to = run into a neighbor's yard, and in retaliation the neighbor, who happened t= o be a city council incumbent, poisoned the dog.=20

Wilson ran against the man and won because he ferried so many voters, mostl= y poor and black, to the polls.=20

Wilson went on to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy, then serve as a Nav= y officer and spend six terms in the Texas Legislature.=20

Tom Bacon, who spent a year as a legislative and press aide to Wilson short= ly after he was first elected, said his boss had a tendency to write his ow= n press releases. That infuriated Bacon, in part because that was his job, = in part because Wilson was a poor writer.=20

Finally, the aide had enough and quit.=20

=E2=80=9CI went storming down into his office ready to fight,=E2=80=9D Baco= n recalled. =E2=80=9CHe kept intruding on my job. But when I left, I was dr= inking whiskey with him. He had the knack of making you like him.=E2=80=9D= =20

Wilson was married when he went to Congress in the early =E2=80=9870s, but = that marriage didn't last long in Washington, where he was surrounded by te= mptation.=20

He was known for and hiring gorgeous women in his office who came to be kno= wn as Charlie's Angels.=20

=E2=80=9CYes, he was a good-time guy and a womanizer,=E2=80=9D says Houston= attorney Terry O'Rourke, who worked for Wilson in the Texas Senate, then i= n Congress. =E2=80=9CBut he was hiring very intelligent women before anybod= y else, and they were a part of his success.=E2=80=9D=20

Wilson took seriously his constituents but little else until he became invo= lved in Afghanistan. He was convinced that the Communism was going to sprea= d there and beyond unless they were stopped. In the =E2=80=9880s, he helped= channel billions of dollars in American aid to the war effort.=20

Helped by Houstonian=20 His partner in the effort was Joanne King Herring, a Houston socialite, cru= sader and staunch anti-communist. During their brief love affair, they live= d and breathed the Afghanistan conflict, and the Soviets found themselves o= utmanned, outgunned and outsmarted.=20

Detractors say the arms they helped provide the Afghan mujahadeen wound up = in the hands of the Taliban government, which was harboring Osama bin Laden= at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.=20

Wilson and Herring's relationship died a natural death, but they got back i= n touch when George Crile wrote a hard-to-believe-but-nonetheless-true acco= unt of their adventures, Charlie Wilson's War.=20

Tom Hanks played Wilson and Julia Roberts played Herring in the 2007 movie = version. The surrounding hoopla put Wilson and Herring back in the limeligh= t.=20

Wilson loved the book, loved the movie and loved hobnobbing with the Hollyw= ood stars. By then, however, he was recovering from the heart transplant an= d his activities were limited. He made it to the Los Angeles opening accomp= anied by not just Barbara and his old friends Wing and Temple, but also his= cardiologist and large amounts of medical equipment.=20

Herring, unencumbered and in excellent health, said, =E2=80=9CI would have = hated it if Charlie had missed this. This is his moment.=E2=80=9C=20

=E2=80=98He left us a legacy'=20 Wednesday evening, a saddened Herring described Wilson as a patriot and dea= r friend.=20

=E2=80=9CHe left us a legacy that we must fulfill,=E2=80=9D she said. =E2= =80=9CWe have to rebuild Afghanistan so that the people can maintain themse= lves and our soldiers can come home. The villagers can do it. We just have = to help them with health care and education.=E2=80=9D=20

Wilson actually went to a meeting with his friend Temple on Wednesday morni= ng, and the two men were together when Wilson started to go into cardiopulm= onary arrest.=20

=E2=80=9CHe was sharp, very sharp at the meeting, but he hadn't been feelin= g 100 percent for a while,=E2=80=9D Temple said. =E2=80=9CWe have lost a gi= ant. There won't be another like him for a while.=E2=80=9D=20

Chronicle reporter Mike Tolson contributed. "