Barry M. Goldwater, 89, a five-term U.S. senator from Arizona and a champion of conservatism whose 1964 presidential candidacy launched a revolution within the Republican Party, died yesterday at home in Paradise Valley, a suburb of Phoenix.
He suffered a stroke in 1996 that damaged the part of the brain that controls memory and personality. Last September, family members said he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Mr. Goldwater, who retired from the Senate in 1986 as one of his party's most respected elder statesmen, suffered a resounding defeat when he ran for president. But his efforts helped prepare the way for the election of another conservative Republican, Ronald Reagan, as president in 1980.
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