Mississippi Sen. Cochran marries longtime staffer
Cochran’s first wife died in nursing home
JACKSON, Miss. – U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran – the Mississippi Republican whose 2014 primary campaign drew national attention over an aspiring blogger’s photos of his bedridden wife – has married his longtime aide, his office said Monday.
The wedding to Kay Webber took place privately Saturday in Gulfport.
The senator’s first wife, Rose Cochran, died in December at age 73 from dementia after living in a nursing home for 13 years.
Political blogger Clayton Kelly took pictures of a bedridden Rose Cochran in April 2014, and officials say he intended to use the images to advance allegations that the senator was having an inappropriate relationship with Webber. Cochran’s aides said then that there was nothing improper about the senator’s relationship with Webber.
Webber has worked for Cochran since 1981, and both are 77, spokesman Chris Gallegos said. Webber makes $165,000 a year working for the senator.
Kelly, of Pearl, faces charges of conspiracy, burglary and attempted burglary over the photograph.
Cochran won his first six-year term in the Senate in 1978.