In April 1958, both houses of Congress passed a resolution of statehood for Alaska, and on January 3, 1959, President Eisenhower signed the bill into law. Alaska was now the 49th state, and, in Senator Warren Magnuson's phrase, Bartlett might rightly be called its "Founding Father." Alaskans demonstrated their gratitude by electing Bartlett as its first Senator, a position he maintained from 1958 until his death in 1969. The following obituaries from Alaskan newspapers best sum up Bartlett's relation to his constituents:
The people of this state who loved him are known for their individualism, divisiveness, sectionalism, arrogance, and clannishness. Yet [Bartlett] held them united behind him for 24 years--a longevity in public office that is unequaled in Alaska. On ten different occasions the stubborn, unmanageable, belligerent, and politically erratic populace of Alaska handed him the crown with election returns as much as 81 percent in his favor. No one in all the states' history has ever enjoyed such frequent and solid support from Alaskans. 1
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