Champagne heir Jean Taittinger dies

PARIS -- Jean Taittinger, a longtime French legislator and heir to the Taittinger Champagne legacy, has died. He was 89.

Taittinger died Sunday and was buried in a private family ceremony, son Frantz Taittinger told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Jean Marie Pierre Hubert Taittinger, born Jan. 25, 1923, fought the Nazis toward the end of World War II and went on to a long political career. He was a member of parliament from 1958 to 1973 and mayor of Reims, the Champagne center for 18 years until the late 1970s.

Traditionally, French lawmakers hold local office concurrently with their national post.

He also served as France's justice minister under President Georges Pompidou. Among his initiatives was studying the legalization of abortion, which opened the way for a law in 1975 under the next president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing.

He was also honorary president of the Taittinger Champagne house, whose origins date to the 1700s.

-- AP