Edward Rell Madigan

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Edward Rell Madigan (January 13, 1936December 7, 1994) was a businessman and a Republican party politician from Lincoln, Illinois. He served almost twenty years in the United States House of Representatives and was U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for George H. W. Bush.

Madigan was born in Lincoln and attended Lincoln Junior College before starting his own business. He entered public service as a member of the Lincoln Board of Zoning Appeals from 1965 to 1969. During that time, he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives where he served from 1967 to 1972. That year he was elected as a Republican to the U.S. House, and was subsequently elected to nine more terms. He served in Congress from 1973 to 1991 when he resigned to become Secretary of Agriculture, a position he held from 1991 to 1992.

He died in Lincoln in 1994, and is interred at the Holy Cross Cemetery there. In 1995, the Edward R. Madigan State Fish and Wildlife Area, a state park near Lincoln, was renamed in Madigan's honor. Edward came from a political active family and his younger brother Robert served in Illinois State Senate for 14 years and after that on the Illinois Commerce Commsion.

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Preceded by:
Clayton K. Yeutter
United States Secretary of Agriculture
1991–1993
Succeeded by:
A. Michael Espy