23 Facts About Sam Church

Sam Church's grandfather had been a mine superintendent, and his father had worked as a miner until an accident crushed his foot.

The Churches moved to Virginia in 1944, where Sam worked as a shoeshine boy and pinsetter at a bowling alley.

Sam Church participated in his first strike at the bowling alley, but the employer fired all the striking workers.

At the age of 20 in 1956, Church moved to Baltimore, Maryland, and took a job at a sugar plant.

Sam Church returned to Virginia in 1965 and worked for the Clinchfield Coal Company as an electrician and mechanic.

Sam Church rose quickly within the union, and was elected a UMWA field representative for District 28 in 1973.

In 1975, Sam Church became an international field representative and a member of Miller's headquarters staff.

In 1977, Sam Church was elected vice president of the union.

When Sam Church punched a former UMWA staffer in a dispute over a leak to the press, Miller asked Sam Church to be his running-mate.

Sam Church told the union's executive board on October 29,1979 that he was considering resigning.

Sam Church traveled to Charleston, and sitting at Miller's bedside he negotiated Miller's resignation.

Miller resigned the presidency of the United Mine Workers on November 16,1979, and Sam Church was elected to succeed him.

Two years later, Miller told reporters that he was sorry he named Sam Church his running mate and that he was "not very happy" about Sam Church becoming union president.

Sam Church's tenure as president of UMWA was a difficult one.

Sam Church set out to reverse the union's decline: In 1981, he led the union out on a two-month nationwide coal strike.

However, when Sam Church ran for re-election as UMWA president in 1982, he was defeated.

Union members were upset that Sam Church had not continued to reform the union.

Sam Church had responded with an off-color joke when pressed by the women for the addition to the contract for affirmative action and improved sickness and accident coverage.

Sam Church remained active in the miners' union after his election loss, however.

Sam Church became coordinator of the Virginia Coal Miners' Political Action Committee.

Sam Church was a former member of the Appalachia, Virginia, town council and Wise County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors.

Sam Church then married the former Patti Page, an attorney.

Sam Church suffered from Parkinson's disease in the last few years of his life, and died in Bristol, Virginia, on July 14,2009, from complications due to surgery.