<p>Former House Speaker Tom Murphy, 79, has suffered an apparent stroke and was in serious condition in an Atlanta hospital.</p><p>Murphy, one of the states most influential figures for more than two decades, was being treated at Piedmont Hospital after having what was believed to be a stroke Saturday, said his daughter, Martha Long.</p><p>Murphy had been home recuperating from having a pacemaker implanted Thursday when the incident occurred. Family members returned Murphy to the hospital, where he was in serious condition on Monday, Long said.</p><p>Until his legislative defeat in 2002, Murphy was undisputed ruler of the House of Representatives, the longest-serving state House speaker in the nation.</p><p>Thomas Bailey Murphy was elected to the House in 1960 and to the speakers post in 1973.</p><p>Murphy was the states most important political power broker in the 1980s. His influence helped an obscure legislative protege, Joe Frank Harris, win the governors office in 1982 and 1986, and it turned the tide for Wyche Fowler in the 1986 U.S. Senate race.</p><p>His kingmaking power ebbed in 1990 when Zell Miller, the lieutenant governor for 16 years, won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination over a Murphy-backed candidate.</p><p>As the decade progressed, Murphy found it increasingly difficult to control a House of Representatives that was growing more diverse and less cohesive with every election. Rural, white males no longer dominated as they had for decades.</p><p>Murphy lost his seat in the House two years ago, largely because his west Georgia district became increasingly Republican. Away from the Capitol, Murphy works a one-acre garden at his home in Bremen. Hes an avid reader, favoring westerns by such authors as Louis LAmour and Zane Gray.</p><p>Murphy is a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II. He earned a law degree from the University of Georgia in 1949. He served on the Bremen school board before winning election to the House in 1960.</p><p>Murphy was previously hospitalized in March 1994 for an apparent heart attack that struck three days after one of the most contentious legislative sessions ever. In June 1992, Murphy had surgery to clear a blocked artery in his neck.</p>
