U.S. Renne Dies at 82

PERENNIAL OFFICE CANDIDATE WAS FRIEND OF DISPOSSESSED FARMERS

U.S. Renne, 82, former DeSoto, Nebraska man who gained widespread publicity for his many years of alternately running for public office and fighting court battles for those he considered underprivileged, died Sunday. He had been taken to an Omaha hospital four days earlier after a heart attack.

Mr. Renne was known as a champion of the dispossessed. during the hard times he battled tooth and nail to keep tenant farmers from being evicted for nonpayment of rent. He helped call farm strikes, form protest mobs, dump milk from market-bound trucks and otherwise call attention to his demands. He often spoke at public meetings here, and once was sentenced to jail here for contempt of court. Although not a lawyer, he frequently went into court in his constant fight against evictions.

OFTEN RAN FOR OFFICE

Calling himself a liberal Republican, he sought the nomination for representative from this district, and also aspired to the U.S. Senate nomination, but never got either.

He was a graduate engineer but never practiced that profession, and a law school graduate never admitted to practice. He was a real estate broker since moving to Omaha. But at last year's Nebraska Real Estate Association convention, he was silenced because he was not a member.

He referred to himself as an iconoclast, and belonged to no church or lodge. He favored the Townsend Plan for old-age pensions.

The body was sent to St. Joseph, Missouri for services and burial.

~~~Obituary courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

FindaGrave #216635498