With the opening of the new Tacoma Narrows bridge just weeks away, one of its longtime champions, former state Sen. Bob Oke, died Monday night at a Seattle hospital of a rare form of blood cancer.

Oke, 66, served 16 years in the state Senate, representing the 26th Legislative District, which stretches from Gig Harbor to Bremerton and includes the Key Peninsula.

Oke, who lived in Port Orchard, believed a second bridge was the only way to solve traffic jams and head-on collisions on the existing span, and that an additional bridge would open the area west of the Tacoma Narrows to more development.

He worked for years on legislation to authorize construction of the bridge, but not everyone liked the sound of more development, or bridge tolls to pay construction costs.

Opposition nearly cost Oke re-election in 2002, when he won by a slim margin of about 300 votes.

“He fought for the bridge when it was a very unpopular thing to do,” said state Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Veradale, said Tuesday. His Olympia office was next to Oke’s.

Gov. Chris Gregoire also took note of Oke’s passing Tuesday while at Lakewood City Hall to sign a prison reform bill.

She called him a “consummate senator, a guy who has exhibited more courage through his illness than I’ve ever seen.”

Colleagues from both sides of the aisle Tuesday remembered Oke as a respectful, soft-spoken man driven by strong convictions.

The conservative Christian Republican fought against tobacco company marketing, especially to children.

After smoking was banned outside most public places, Oke would ask smokers to hold a piece of string.

If he reached the door before the 25-foot piece of string ran out, he would ask the smoker to move farther away.

He also was a foe of gay rights, calling homosexuality an “abomination.” Oke was estranged from his lesbian daughter, as well as from his one son, said his spokeswoman, Penny Drost.

He loved to golf, and he counted the Bible as his favorite book. Oke, whose favorite pastime was hunting pheasants in Eastern Washington, worked to further the interests of fishermen and his “hunter friends,” McCaslin said.

A Centralia facility that raises pheasants to be hunted was renamed the Bob Oke Game Farm after he secured funding that kept the facility open, Drost said.

Oke was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2004 and had two stem cell transplants.

Recently, the cancer came out of remission and attacked his vital organs.

He returned to the Seattle Veterans Affairs Medical Center for the last time Saturday.

He was born Sept. 4, 1940, in Spokane.

He joined the Navy at 18 after graduating from West Seattle High School. He served 26 years, attaining the rank of senior chief petty officer after postings that included Morocco and Guam.

After two unsuccessful bids for the state House, Oke was elected to the Senate in 1990, then re-elected in 1994, 1998 and 2002.

He decided not to run last year.

Oke is survived by his wife, Judy, three daughters, a son and eight grandchildren.

What: Bob Oke will be interred at the National Veterans Cemetery in Kent.

When: The ceremony will be open to the public, but the date and time have not yet been set.

More information: Call Penny Drost at 360-786-7522.