Associated Press

CHARLOTTESVILLE

Former U.S. Sen. John W. Warner has donated his public papers to the University of Virginia.

The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library opened the papers to the public last week after a nine-year effort to catalog and organize the documents.

The 90-year-old former Republican senator, who once was married to legendary actress Elizabeth Taylor, graduated from the University of Virginia’s School of Law in 1953 and is a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. Before being elected to the U.S. Senate in November 1978, he worked for the Department of Defense and served as secretary of the Navy under President Richard Nixon.

The full collection spans Mr. Warner’s three decades as a senator, and reaches back to his earliest days as an enlisted man in the Navy. He served in the U.S. Senate until January 2009. He did not seek re-election in 2008, and was succeeded by Democrat Mark R. Warner, a former Virginia governor.