What You Didn't Know About Sen. Carl Levin
By Allegra Hartley
Posted 11/10/06
- Carl Levin was born in Detroit on June 28, 1934. He was raised in a politically active family with his older siblings, Sander and Hannah.
- He graduated in 1952 from Central High School in Detroit, where he was class president. He campaigned with a piece of matzo bread and the slogan "This is what happens to bread without Levin."
- He received a bachelor's degree in political science from Swarthmore College in 1956 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1959.
- Before entering Congress, he drove a cab, worked on a DeSoto assembly line, and helped establish the Detroit public defender's office.
- He married Barbara Halpern in 1961. They have three daughters and five grandchildren.
- He was elected into the Senate in 1978 and is Michigan's longest-serving senator.
- His brother, Sander "Sandy" Levin, elected to the House of Representatives in 1983, represents the Detroit suburbs.
- He drives a 1988 Oldsmobile.
- He is an avid hiker and plays squash regularly with his brother.
- He is known for wearing rumpled and frayed clothes and wears his glasses on the end of his nose. He was voted "worst hair in Congress" in 2004 and was featured in Radar magazine's "worst trends in congressional coifs."
>Sources:
Sen. Carl Levin (Mich.)
Almanac of American Politics
http://levin.senate.gov/about/index.html
Detroit News
Detroit Free Press
New York Times
Associated Press