Prior to his death, Warren lived in Falls Church, Virginia. He died suddenly of cancer at the age of 69 in the Hospice of Northern Virginia facility. He was born in Menominee, Michigan to John and Sadie Sawall. During World War II, he was an Army Air Forces fighter pilot. He was shot down over Germany and became a Prisoner of War. Returning from the War, he attended the University of Wisconsin where he graduated in 1948. He was a newspaper reporter in Wisconsin for The Wisconsin Rapids Tribune from 1948 to 1950. He was the editor of the Wisconsin Democratic Party newspaper, The Democrat from 1950 – 1952. He was a Wisconsin Democratic Party public relations official before moving to Washington and joining Senator Gaylord Nelson's staff in 1963 as Gaylord Nelson’s Administrative Aide. He remained there until 1979, when he began working for the Department of Agriculture Public Affairs official. He retired in 1985. Warren was a charter life member of the Northern Virginia chapter of American Ex-Prisoners of War, and he was a volunteer at Arlington Hospital in Arlington, Virginia. His marriages to Ellen Imogene nee Hodges Sawall and Effie Jean nee Vatsures Sawall ended in divorce. His third wife, Helen Winslow Tshijian Sawall, died in 1988. He was preceded in death by an infant son, William Wayne Proxmire and his parents John and Sadie Sawall. He is survived by two daughters from his first marriage, Mary Ellen Poulos of Shorewood, Wisconsin, and Jan Cathy Licht of Lombard, Illinois; two sons from his second marriage, John Sawall III of Woodbridge, Virginia and Frederick Sawall of Delaware, Ohio; and five grandchildren.
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