Former State Senator “Jet” Banks of St. Louis has died of an apparent heart attack. Banks, who was first elected to the State House of Representatives in 1968, served four terms there before being elected to the Senate in 1976. In 1988, Banks’ colleagues chose him Majority Leader of the Senate. State Senator Maida Coleman of St. Louis says Banks died yesterday while in Las Vegas. Banks, who was elected to his fifth and final Senate term in 1996, was 79.
