Jane Maury Denton, wife of former Vietnam POW and U.S. senator, dies
The Associated Press
MOBILE, Alabama: Jane Maury Denton, the wife of former Vietnam prisoner of war and ex-U.S. Sen. Jeremiah Denton Jr., has died. She was 81.
Denton died Thursday at a Norfolk, Virginia, hospital from heart attack complications, family members said.
She helped organize the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia in the 1960s, after her Navy pilot husband was shot down and captured in 1965. He was held for nearly eight years in a North Vietnamese prison.
Denton's advocacy work was credited for the group's efforts in obtaining humane treatment and the ultimate release of American prisoners.
Her husband drew international attention in 1966 when he was being interviewed on North Vietnamese television. He blinked in Morse code the letters "t-o-r-t-u-r-e," letting U.S. intelligence officials know what was happening to the prisoners.
Jeremiah Denton, who retired as a rear admiral in 1973, was elected in 1980 to the U.S. Senate. A Republican, he served one term. The Dentons lived in a home south of Mobile on Fowl River for more than 30 years. In September, the couple moved to Williamsburg, Virginia.