High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert Carlyle Byrd (born November 20, 1917) is the senior United States Senator from West Virginia, and a member and former Senate Leader of the Democratic Party. Byrd has been a Senator since January 3, 1959, and is the longest-serving Senator as well as the longest-serving member in congressional history. He has been the Dean of the Senate since 2003. He is also the oldest current member of the Congress, and is the first person to serve uninterrupted for half a century as a U.S. senator.