Editing Lester C. Hunt (section)

===Aftermath===
The day after Hunt's suicide, Pearson published his charges about how Republican Senators had threatened Hunt, but described Hunt's motives as complex:<ref name="pearson1" />
{{Blockquote|Two weeks ago he went to the hospital for a physical check and announced that he would not run again. It was no secret that he had been having kidney trouble for some time, but I am sure that on top of this, Lester Hunt, a much more sensitive soul than his colleagues realized, just could not bear the thought of having his son's misfortunes become the subject of whispers in his re-election campaign.}}
In private, he confirmed that Hunt had no serious health problem and wrote in his diary that "Unfortunately I am afraid that the morals charge against his son and the experience Hunt suffered was the main factor."<ref>Pearson, ''Diaries, 1949-1959'', 321</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=McDaniel |first=Rodger |title=Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins: The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt |year=2013|pages=269ff}}</ref>

Hunt was buried on June 22 in [[Cheyenne, Wyoming|Cheyenne]] at Beth El Cemetery following a brief church service<!-- in Cheyenne-->.<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1954/06/23/archives/senator-hunt-buried-600-fill-cheyenne-church-for-senators-funeral.html |title =Senator Hunt Buried |date=June 23, 1954 |access-date=February 24, 2011}}</ref> At the time of his death, Hunt was a [[Major (United States)|major]] in the [[United States Army Reserve|Army Reserve Corps]].<ref name="nytobit" />

On June 24, <!-- 1954,--> acting Wyoming Governor [[Clifford Joy Rogers|C.J. Rogers]] appointed Republican [[Edward D. Crippa]] to fill the remainder of Hunt's Senate term, which expired in January.<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000906 Crippa, Edward David - Biographical Information] - Congressional Biography Directory</ref> On&nbsp;July&nbsp;4,<!-- 1954, --> the conservative ''[[Washington Times-Herald]]'' reported Buddy Hunt's arrest and conviction from the previous year, with Hunt's death giving the story wider circulation than it had previously received.<ref>Shelby Scates, ''Maurice Rosenblatt and the Fall of Joseph McCarthy'' (University of Washington Press, 2006), 97</ref><ref>{{cite news| date = July 28, 1954| title = Congressional Quiz| url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19540728&id=i6leAAAAIBAJ&pg=2720,1918675&hl=en| newspaper = [[The Free Lance–Star]]
| location= [[Fredericksburg, Virginia]]| agency = [[Congressional Quarterly]]| access-date  = May 3, 2018| volume = 70| issue = 176}}</ref>

On July 9, Blick signed an affidavit exonerating Bridges and Welker of pressuring him, but his decision to prosecute Buddy Hunt under circumstances which did not normally warrant prosecution remained unexplained.<ref>James J. Kiepper, ''Styles Bridges: Yankee Senator'' (Sugar Hill, NH: Phoenix Publishing, 2001), 146</ref> On November 9, the Senate eulogized its members who had died recently and Bridges called Hunt "a man who demonstrated the best qualities of an American. He was loyal and he served well".<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1954/11/10/archives/senate-pays-tribute-to-4-who-have-died.html |title=Senate Pays Tribute to 4 who have Died |date=November 10, 1954 |access-date=March 4, 2011}}</ref> Hunt's cousin, William M. Spencer, president of the [[GE Capital Rail Services|North American Car Corporation]] in Chicago, wrote Welker after learning he had eulogized Hunt:<ref>Kiepper, 147; also quoted in part: Scates, 97-8</ref>
{{Blockquote|I was shocked when I read this. It recalled to my mind so vividly the conversation with Senator Hunt a few weeks before he died, wherein he recited in great detail the diabolical part you played following the unfortunate and widely publicized episode in which his son was involved. Senator Hunt, a close personal friend of mine, told me without reservation the details of the tactics you used in endeavoring to induce him to withdraw from the Senate, or at least not to be a candidate again. It seems apparent that you took every advantage of the misery which the poor fellow was suffering at the time in your endeavor to turn it to political advantage. Such procedure is as low a blow as could be conceived. I understood, too, from Senator Hunt, that Senator Bridges had been consulted by you and approved of your action in the matter.}}

Democrat [[Joseph C. O'Mahoney]] won Hunt's Senate seat in the election on November&nbsp;2, defeating the Republican nominee, Congressman [[William Henry Harrison III]].<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=O000088 O'Mahoney, Joseph Christopher - Biographical Information] - Congressional Biography Directory</ref>

Buddy Hunt later worked on the staff of Catholic Charities in Chicago and then for the Industrial Areas Foundation of Chicago. With his co-worker there, [[Nicholas von Hoffman]], he co-authored a paper, "The Meanings of 'Democracy': Puerto Rican Organizations in Chicago", that appeared in ''ETC: A Review of General Semantics'', an academic journal of linguistics in 1956.<ref>[[S.I. Hayakawa]], ed., ''Our Language and Our World: Selections from ETC: A Review of General Semantics'' (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1959), 52–65</ref> In October 2015, Buddy completed his first on-camera interview about his arrest and his father's suicide, for the Yahoo News documentary “Uniquely Nasty: The U.S. Government’s War on Gays.”<ref>{{cite news |last=Isikoff |first=Michael |date=October 7, 2015 |title=U.S. Senator Urges Probe Into Cold War-era Antigay Blackmail Plot |url=https://www.yahoo.com/politics/us-senator-urges-probe-into-cold-war-era-antigay-135116917.html |url-status= live| access-date = December 15, 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231215005108/https://www.yahoo.com/news/web/20231215005108/https://news.yahoo.com/politics/us-senator-urges-probe-into-cold-war-era-antigay-135116917.html | archive-date= December 15, 2023|publisher=Yahoo News |location=San Jose, CA}}</ref> Buddy Hunt died in Chicago on January 6, 2020, at the age of 92.<ref>{{Cite web| website = Legacy.com | access-date = December 15, 2023| url = https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/lester-hunt-obituary?pid=194948270 | date=January 6, 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20231215003750/https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/lester-hunt-obituary?pid=194948270 | archive-date = December 15, 2023 | title = Lester Hunt Obituary | quote = He was married to Jean Hunt for 58 years before her death in February 2017.... Lester's two daughters and granddaughters will miss his humor... }}</ref>