Complex sentence: Dirksen's widow, Louella, died of cancer on July 16,1979, as did the couple's daughter, Joy, the first wife of Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, on April 24,1993.
Split into simpler sentences: Dirksen's widow, Louella, died of cancer on July 16,1979. Their daughter Joy, the first wife of Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee, died of cancer on April 24,1993.