[Senate Document 104-11]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]





 
                            John C. Stennis

                    LATE A SENATOR FROM MISSISSIPPI

                           MEMORIAL TRIBUTES

                                     

                           IN THE CONGRESS OF
                           THE UNITED STATES

                                     


                                     

                                     


                                           
                                                           S. Doc. 104-
                                         --
                                           
                                  Memorial Tributes

                                Delivered in Congress


                               John Cornelius Stennis

                                      1901-1995

                           Late A Senator from Mississippi


                                          --

                                           
                                           



                           Compiled  under the  direction

                                       of the

                              Secretary of  the  Senate

                                       by the

                            Office of  Printing  Services

                                           
                                      CONTENTS

             Biography.............................................
                                                                     ix
             Proceedings in the Senate:
                Prayer by the Senate Chaplain Dr. Lloyd John 
                  Ogilvie..........................................
                                                                      1
                Announcement of death by Senator Robert Dole of 
                  Kansas...........................................
                                                                      2
                Resolution of respect..............................
                                                                     20
                Tributes by Senators:
                    Byrd, Robert C., of West Virginia..............
                                                                  5, 32
                       Letter from Dr. Wayne M. Miller, with 
                         enclosure.................................
                                                                     32
                    Cochran, Thad, of Mississippi..................
                                                                 11, 22
                       Article from the Clarion-Ledger.............
                                                                     11
                    Daschle, Thomas A., of South Dakota............
                                                                      3
                    Hatfield, Mark O., of Oregon...................
                                                                     23
                    Heflin, Howell, of Alabama.....................
                                                                     25
                       Old Irish Prayer............................
                                                                     27
                    Hollings, Ernest F., of South Carolina.........
                                                                     16
                    Inouye, Daniel K., of Hawaii...................
                                                                     21
                    Johnston, J. Bennett, of Louisiana.............
                                                                     27
                       Poem by Gilbert Holland.....................
                                                                     30
                    Kyl, Jon, of Arizona...........................
                                                                     21
                    Nickles, Don, of Oklahoma......................
                                                                     10
                    Nunn, Sam, of Georgia..........................
                                                                     13
                    Simpson, Alan K., of Wyoming...................
                                                                     30
                    Thurmond, Strom, of South Carolina.............
                                                                      2
             Proceedings in the House:
                Message from the Senate............................
                                                                     35
                Montgomery, G.V. (Sonny), of Mississippi...........
                                                                     35
                Legislative Censure................................
                                                                     37
             Memorial Service for John Cornelius Stennis:
                Pinecrest Cemetery, DeKalb, Mississippi............
                                                                     43
             Condolences and Tributes:
                Christening of the Aircraft Carrier, John C. 
                  Stennis CVN-74...................................
                                                                     55
                John C. Stennis, Celebration of a Legend...........
                                                                     63
                Senator John C. Stennis Day........................
                                                                     67
                The Senator, Alumnus Mississippi State University..
                                                                     73
                Mississippi Dinner Honoring United States Senator 
                  John C. Stennis..................................
                                                                     79
                    The White House, statement by Richard Nixon....
                                                                     81
                    Letter by Lyndon B. Johnson....................
                                                                     81
                    Letter by Dwight D. Eisenhower.................
                                                                     81
             Newspaper Articles and Editorials:
                Former Senator John C. Stennis Dead at 93, 
                  Associated Press.................................
                                                                     84
                Former Long-Time Mississippi Senator Dies at Age 
                  93, Reuters, Limited.............................
                                                                     85
                Longtime Power Stennis Dies at 93, Clarion-Ledger..
                                                                     86
                No Negatives for the Kemper Statesman, Clarion-
                  Ledger...........................................
                                                                     89
                Ability to Adapt Helped Stennis Endure and 
                  Mississippi Advance, Clarion-Ledger..............
                                                                     90
                Mississippi's Stennis, `Mr. Integrity,' Dies at 93, 
                  Commercial Appeal................................
                                                                     92
                Once-Powerful Senator, John Stennis Dead at 93, 
                  Daily Leader, Brookhaven, MS)....................
                                                                     94
                Mississippians Remember John Stennis, Oxford Eagle, 
                  Oxford, MS.......................................
                                                                     96
                Leaders Say He Was True Statesman, Daily Leader, 
                  Brookhaven, MS...................................
                                                                     97
                Ex-Senator John C. Stennis Dies, Associated Press..
                                                                     98
                Former Senator John Stennis, Defense Authority, 
                  Dies at 93, Washington Post......................
                                                                     99
                Ex-Senator From Mississippi Dies at 93; Stennis 
                  Wielder Clout Over U.S. Military Affairs, Phoenix 
                  Gazette..........................................
                                                                    101
                John Stennis, Former Senator, Bergen New Jersey 
                  Record...........................................
                                                                    102
                ``Conscience of Senate'' Dies, Rocky Mountain News.
                                                                    103
                Former Senator Stennis; at 93; Held Mississippi 
                  Seat For Four Decades, New Jersey Record.........
                                                                    104
                Ex-Senator John Stennis, 93 Dies, Served in 
                  Congress For 41 Years, Rhode Island Providence 
                  Journal-Bulletin.................................
                                                                    105
                John C. Stennis, 93, Longtime Chairman of Powerful 
                  Committees in the Senate, Dies, New York Times...
                                                                    106
                John C. Stennis; Longtime Senator; Lawmaker from 
                  Mississippi Chaired Armed Services Committee For 
                  12 Years and Strongly Influenced Military Policy, 
                  Los Angeles Times................................
                                                                    109
                John Stennis, 93, Former Mississippi Senator, 
                  Atlanta Journal and Constitution.................
                                                                    111
                John Stennis Was Senator, Indianapolis News........
                                                                    112
                Former Senator Stennis Dies, Gannett News Service..
                                                                    113
                John C. Stennis, Senator From 1947 to 1988, Dies; 
                  Mississippi Democrat Wielded Military Clout, 
                  Fresno Bee.......................................
                                                                    114
                Mississippi's Stennis, ``Mr. Integrity,'' Dies at 
                  93, Senator For Four Decades Never Lost an 
                  Election, Commercial Appeal (Memphis)............
                                                                    115
                Former Mississippi Senator John Stennis, Chicago 
                  Tribune..........................................
                                                                    118
                Ex-Mississippi Senator Dies, Charleston Daily Mail.
                                                                    119
                Former Senator John Stennis of Mississippi Dies at 
                  93, Austin American-Statesman....................
                                                                    120
                Stennis Friends Recall Leader's Human Qualities, 
                  Clarion-Ledger...................................
                                                                    121
                Senator John C. Stennis Dies at Age 93, Reflector 
                  (Mississippi State University)...................
                                                                    122
                A Lifetime Spent in the Service of His Fellow 
                  Mississippians, Reflector (Mississippi State 
                  University)......................................
                                                                    124
                Hundreds Pay Respect to Stennis, Clarion-Ledger....
                                                                    124
                Longtime Senator Remembered as a Man of Faith, 
                  Associated Press.................................
                                                                    125
                Stennis Embodied Something Missing in Many 
                  Politicians, Clarion-Ledger......................
                                                                    126
                Stennis Comes Home For Final Time, Meridian Star...
                                                                    127
                Stennis Buried in Simple Ceremony, Associated Press
                                                                    129
                Character Judged By Stennis' Measure, New Albany 
                  Gazette..........................................
                                                                    130
                Mississippi Loses Revered Statesman, New Albany 
                  Gazette..........................................
                                                                    131
                John Stennis, Indiannapolis News...................
                                                                    133
                Stennis Memorialized as a ``Great Man,'' Last 
                  Respects Paid to Statesman, Commercial Appeal 
                  (Memphis)........................................
                                                                    133
                Five Hundred Bid Stennis Farewell, Clarion-Ledger..
                                                                    135
                Justice To a Just Man: John Stennis, Washington 
                  Times............................................
                                                                    136
                Senator Stennis Plowed A Straight Furrow, 
                  Commercial Dispatch..............................
                                                                    137
                U.S. Senator John C. Stennis: He Was a Giant in 
                  Every Way, Lagniappe, NASA Aeronautics and Space 
                  Administration...................................
                                                                    139
                                      BIOGRAPHY
                                           
               John Cornelius Stennis, Democrat, a Senator from the 
             State of Mississippi, was born August 3, 1901 in the 
             Kipling community of Kemper County, Mississippi, and 
             graduated from Mississippi State University and the Law 
             School of the University of Virginia. He served in the 
             Mississippi House of Representatives, 1928 to 1932; as a 
             District Attorney, 1932 to 1937; as Circuit Court Judge, 
             1937 to 1947; and as United States Senator, November 1947 
             to January 1989. He died April 23, 1995, and is interred 
             in Pinecrest Cemetery, DeKalb, Mississippi. The late Coy 
             Hines and he were married in 1929. He was a Presbyterian. 
             Survivors include his son John Hampton, daughter Margaret 
             Womble, and six grandchildren.
                 

                                  MEMORIAL TRIBUTES

                                         to

                                   JOHN C. STENNIS
                              Proceedings in the Senate
                                                Monday, April 24, 1995.
               The Chaplain, Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, offered the 
             following prayer:
               Let us pray:

               Almighty God, our hearts are at half-mast with grief 
             over the catastrophic bombing of the Federal building in 
             Oklahoma City. We mourn for the victims, especially the 
             children, of this senseless crime and reach out with 
             profound empathy to their families. We ask You to 
             strengthen them as they endure incredible suffering. 
             Graciously grant physical and emotional healing to those 
             who survived. Most of all, comfort the children who ask 
             ``why?'' and give wisdom to parents as they search for 
             words to answer. We all need help in understanding an 
             ignominious act of tyranny like this.
               We only can imagine the agony of Your heart, Father. If 
             our indignation burns white-hot, it must be small in 
             comparison to Your judgment. You have given us freedom of 
             will and made us responsible for the welfare of our 
             neighbors. Our hearts break with Your heart over those who 
             willfully cause suffering. Therefore, we boldly ask for 
             Your divine intervention for the speedy capture and 
             punishment of these traitors against our Nation and the 
             sacredness of human life. As You have given us victory in 
             just wars, now give us a strategy to defeat the illusive 
             and dangerous forces of organized terrorism.
               Lord God of this Senate, we are never more of one mind 
             and heart than when dealing with a threat to our national 
             security or in responding to a catastrophe in any one of 
             our States. We rally in support of Senators Nickles and 
             Inhofe as they continue to care for their people.
               We press on to the issues of this day with the strong 
             inspiration of the 40 years of leadership of John Stennis 
             in this Senate. May the memory of his faith in You and his 
             courage in conflict give us determination to seek, as he 
             did, to do our best. In the Lord's name. Amen.

               Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I will just take a moment to 
             talk about our departed friend who served here for many, 
             many years, Senator John Stennis. When he left the Senate 
             in 1989, he had served in this Chamber for 41 years--
             nearly one-fifth of the Senate's history. And those of us 
             privileged to serve with him knew that he was one of the 
             true giants of that history.
               Senator Stennis passed away yesterday at the age of 93, 
             and I join all Senators in expressing our condolences on 
             the death of our former colleague and in extending our 
             sympathies to members of his family.
               Senator Stennis and I came from different regions of the 
             country, from different political parties, and we had 
             different views on many issues. But no one could know or 
             serve with John Stennis without admiring his character, 
             his integrity, or his patriotism.
               John Stennis loved the Senate and worked to make it a 
             better place. He was the first chairman of the Senate 
             Committee on Standards and Conduct and was the author of 
             the Senate's first code of ethics.
               John Stennis also loved America, and as chairman of the 
             Armed Services Committee, he never wavered from his belief 
             that America's national defense should be second to none.
               John Stennis was also a man of remarkable courage. In 
             his seventies, he was shot and left for dead by robbers 
             outside his Washington home. And in his eighties, he lost 
             a leg to cancer. On both occasions, he not only recovered, 
             but he was also back at work long before anyone thought 
             possible.
               Those of us who were here at the time will always 
             remember the days when Senator Stennis returned to the 
             Chamber and the outpouring of respect and admiration that 
             he received.
               Mr. President, during his final years in this Chamber, 
             Senator John Stennis was asked in an interview how he 
             would like to be remembered, and he responded: ``You 
             couldn't give me a finer compliment than just to say, `He 
             did his best.' ''
               Today, his family, friends, and former colleagues can 
             take solace in the fact that he will be remembered exactly 
             how he wished--as a man who always gave nothing less than 
             his best.

               Mr. THURMOND. Mr. President, we in the Senate were 
             shocked to hear the news of the passing of a cherished 
             friend and a former colleague: former Senator John Stennis 
             from Mississippi.
               Senator Stennis served in this Senate Chamber for 40 
             years--from the time of his election to the Senate in 
             1947, through his retirement in 1989. During that time, he 
             dedicated himself to giving our Nation the gift of wisdom 
             and leadership.
               Senator Stennis was greatly admired by all who had the 
             honor to serve with him. As chairman of the Armed Services 
             Committee, he served with several Presidents; during that 
             time he led the committee through the darkest days of the 
             Vietnam war. Although he often saw his position on that 
             war opposed by some of his fellow Democrats, he always did 
             what he believed to be correct and in the best interest of 
             our Nation.
               For many years, Senator Stennis and I were neighbors in 
             the Russell Building. I recall with great fondness the 
             kindness and good cheer he showed to me and my office 
             staff on the many occasions he stopped in to say hello. 
             Senator Stennis completed his Senate career by serving 
             with great distinction as President Pro Tempore of the 
             Senate.
               I had the honor of serving with Senator John Stennis for 
             almost my entire Senate career. Throughout the years, I 
             came to appreciate and respect his qualities of integrity, 
             ability, and dedication.
               Mr. President, John C. Stennis was a great American. He 
             was a dedicated Senator who proudly represented the people 
             of Mississippi with great distinction. We have lost a 
             colleague, we have lost a leader; but most of all, we have 
             lost a friend.

                                               Tuesday, April 25, 1995.

               Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I would like to take a few 
             minutes to discuss the life and career of Senator John C. 
             Stennis, who passed away earlier this week.
               Senator Stennis served in this Chamber for 41 years. His 
             work here included serving as chairman of the Senate Armed 
             Services and the Senate Appropriations Committees and as 
             President Pro Tempore of this body.
               Among his legislative achievements was his ability to 
             bend and flow with the times. Once a staunch 
             segregationist, Senator Stennis cast his vote for the 
             Voting Rights Act of 1982.
               One area in which he never changed, however, was in 
             upholding the safety and security of this great country. 
             Senator Stennis warned against overextending our military 
             capacity. He also warned against wasteful defense 
             spending. But he never wavered in his support of the 
             country's national defense and ensuring that it maintained 
             the military capacity to guarantee our freedoms and our 
             liberties.
               During his four decades in the U.S. Senate, Senator 
             Stennis was always an abiding example of integrity and 
             fortitude. His respect for the institution of the Senate 
             and the law of the United States made him an early 
             opponent of the excesses and abuses of Senator Joe 
             McCarthy. As a result, he and Senator Sam Ervin were named 
             as the two Democratic members on the Watkins committee 
             that investigated the recklessness of Senator McCarthy and 
             led to his censorship.
               In July 1965, the Senate created the Select Committee on 
             Standards and Conduct, the forerunner of our current 
             Select Committee on Ethics. This was a controversial 
             creation, and everyone knew that whoever chaired it would 
             be in a difficult position. The Senate had traditionally 
             relied upon the voters of a State to discipline a Senator 
             for improper behavior, and institutional discipline is a 
             painful problem in an institution that depends on the 
             collegiality of its Members. The only logical choice for 
             this important and difficult leadership position was 
             Senator Stennis. The Mississippi Senator became so 
             successful; and so respected in this position that the 
             committee quickly became known as the ``Stennis 
             Committee.''
               Mr. President, the career of Senator John C. Stennis was 
             marked, not only with legislative triumphs, but with 
             numerous personal triumphs over personal adversity.
               In 1973, he was shot by robbers in front of his house 
             and left for dead.
               In 1983, his beloved wife of 52 years, Coy Hines Stennis 
             passed away.
               In 1984, a battle with cancer resulted in the loss of 
             one of his legs and confined him to a wheelchair. While in 
             the hospital recuperating from the surgery, he was visited 
             by the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. 
             President Reagan later said that he had dreaded going to 
             the hospital that day, for he feared the impact such a 
             life-altering operation would have on a fiercely 
             independent man like Senator Stennis. But the President 
             explained, ``when I left, it was I who had been 
             strengthened.''
               He had been strengthened by the Senator's confidence, 
             his faith, and his optimism.
               Those qualities defined Senator Stennis' outlook on 
             life. On his Senate desk he kept a plaque that simply 
             read: ``Look Ahead.''
               ``That's my philosophy,'' he explained. Don't waste time 
             lamenting the past. ``You have got to look ahead. I 
             realize that life's not altogether what you make it. But 
             that's part of it, what you make it yourself.''
               Senator Stennis made for himself a wonderful life, and 
             the Senate and the country can be grateful for it.
               When he retired from the Senate in January 1989, Senate 
             Majority Leader Robert Byrd called it ``the end of an 
             era.'' And indeed it was.
               Perhaps a greater compliment came from a Republican 
             Member of Congress from Mississippi, who said, ``We'll 
             miss him. Even if he's a Democrat, he's a great man.''
               As the Senate Democratic leader, I say that is a great 
             statement, even from a Republican.
               In 1988, Congress established the John C. Stennis Center 
             for Public Service Training at Mississippi State 
             University. The center covers a range of historical 
             projects, including an excellent oral history program. 
             When a congressional historian approached him about an 
             oral history of his own life and career, Senator Stennis 
             initially opposed the idea, saying it would be too self-
             aggrandizing. The historian proceeded to explain that it 
             was not only an honor, it was his duty to record for 
             posterity his personal account of the historic events and 
             decisions in which he had been involved.
               ``Well, sir,'' responded Senator Stennis, ``If you say 
             its my duty, then I must do it, because I've always done 
             my duty.''
               It was not only his legislative accomplishments--and 
             they were many--for which we so loved and remember him, it 
             was also his commitment to God and country.
               No person who has ever served in the U.S. Senate was 
             ever quicker to tell you what was wrong with this country. 
             But no person was ever quicker to tell you what was right 
             about it, either.
               Mr. President, Linda and I extend our most heartfelt 
             condolences to the family of John C. Stennis: We share 
             their grief and their loss. But we also thank them for 
             sharing him with us, and I thank the people of Mississippi 
             for selecting him to serve in the Senate for seven terms.
               Mr. President, I yield the floor.

               Mr. BYRD. Mr. President once again, the silver cord has 
             been loosened and the golden bowl has been broken: ``Then 
             shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the 
             spirit shall return unto God who gave it.'' These words 
             from Ecclesiastes--spoken probably ten centuries before 
             the birth of Christ-bare the indelible stamp of 
             permanency. Somewhere, every day, every hour, every 
             minute, they are brought home to someone, and in their 
             train, follow the inevitable pain and sorrow and tears, 
             that we all must bear when loved ones and friends depart 
             from us in this earthly life. The angel of death is no 
             respecter of persons, and each of us will one day hear the 
             beating of his wings--

                  Leaves have their time to fall,
                  And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath,
                  And stars to set-but all,
                  Thou has all seasons for thine own, O Death!

               Mr. President, it was with sorrow that I heard the sad 
             news over the past weekend that our former colleague and 
             friend, John Cornelius Stennis, had passed away at the age 
             of 93. When I came to the United States Senate in January 
             1959, John Stennis was a Member of this body, and we 
             served together 30 years--until he retired at the close of 
             the 100th Congress in 1989. So, it is with sadness that I 
             pay tribute to the memory of this departed colleague 
             today. As we grow older, we are obliged to bid farewell to 
             some friend almost every day, and thus does the circle 
             gradually, and all too rapidly, diminish; for--

                  There is no union here of hearts
                  That finds not here an end.

               Mr. President, John Stennis was a man who achieved 
             greatly in life. For 41 years and 2 months, he represented 
             a great and patriotic constituency in this Chamber, where 
             some of the greatest men of the Republic have served and 
             aspired to serve, and that achievement alone would mark 
             him as a man among men. When we add to this the fact that 
             he served as a member of the Mississippi State House of 
             Representatives for 4 years, as district prosecuting 
             attorney from 1932 to 1937, and as a circuit judge from 
             1937 to 1947, we begin to realize what a wonderful career 
             we are remembering today--60 years in the public service--
             in elective positions, where neighbors and friends, who 
             are often more critical than strangers, are the electors! 
             What more could be said by way of eulogy? Volumes could be 
             written and less said. Yet, that is the record of our 
             former colleague and friend, who, in the merciful 
             dispensations of an all-wise Providence, has now passed on 
             to the other side.
               John Cornelius Stennis was born near DeKalb, Kemper 
             County, MS, on August 3, 1901. He attended the county 
             schools; graduated from the Mississippi State College in 
             1923, and graduated from the University of Virginia Law 
             School in 1928. He was admitted to the bar in 1928 and 
             commenced practice in his home town of DeKalb. I had the 
             honor of serving on the Armed Services Committee and on 
             the Appropriations Committee with Senator Stennis, both of 
             which committees he had served as chairman before his 
             voluntary retirement at the close of the 100th Congress.
               John Stennis was an honest man, and he was a good man, 
             as good men go in this life--plain and modest. He was 
             amiable, courteous, and courtly--a southern Christian 
             gentleman, in every sense of the word. He was 
             intellectually honest, a man of great moral rectitude, 
             simply in his habits, and completely devoid of hypocrisy. 
             He was a Senator who loved the Senate and who was 
             dedicated to its traditions. He was conscious at all 
             times, of the great trust confided in him by the people he 
             represented, and he carried in his heart a great reverence 
             for this institution and for the Constitution of our 
             country. His was a steady hand, an upright character. He 
             was a man of justice and fairness to all. He was 
             unassuming in his manner, sincere and firm in his 
             convictions. Devoid of envy, he was ambitious only to 
             serve the cause of justice and humanity, and being of, 
             for, and from the people, he gave his life to their 
             service. In him, the great people of Mississippi had an 
             ever faithful friend and servant.
               Mr. President, John Stennis was not a large man 
             physically. He was actually rather slight. But he was a 
             giant. The breadth of his character was huge, and the 
             steel of his courage was formidable. Nothing defeated 
             him--not the bruises of the legislative battlefield; not 
             the frightful attack by thugs in the street, who almost 
             caused his death, near his home; not the death of his 
             beloved wife; not the loss of his leg to cancer.
               Nothing defeated him. Nothing held him down for long. He 
             always got up again and went on. He struggled, but he 
             prevailed and endured. And he did it all with a quiet, 
             unassuming dignity.
               He was courtly--ever the gentleman. I called him a 
             Senator's Senator. He represented everything fine about 
             the Senate and everything fine about the human spirit. He 
             was the cream of all things decent that one looks for in a 
             leader and in a man.
               Had he lived in another age he would have been just as 
             great, as respected, as beloved, and as revered as he has 
             been in his own time. He would have enhanced any company 
             in any situation in any age.
               But most of all, the indomitable fortitude stands out. 
             There is a courage possessed by some men which is 
             extraordinary--far beyond what most individuals can ever 
             muster in even their best and bravest moments. It is 
             rarely accompanied by bombast and breast beating. It is 
             carried with a quiet and calm demeanor. No outward show is 
             necessary. In his case, the kindly visage gave no clue to 
             the inner steel. He bore his duties and his crises, his 
             joys and his sorrows, with equal dignity.
               But it was awesome actually to watch. How many times 
             have I come to this Chamber for a vote, bone-weary, and at 
             some dreadful hour in the morning, and seen him sitting 
             straight as an arrow at his desk! There he would be, 17 
             years my senior, frail, missing one leg, with a pleasant 
             greeting for all, in spite of the hour. In this age of 
             clock-watching, and quality-of-life avocation, that kind 
             of dedication may seem an anachronism. But John Stennis 
             was dedication and duty epitomized in the human flesh. He 
             showed us by his example. He never lectured, never said, 
             ``Do as I do.'' He just lived an exemplary life, and that 
             was enough to teach all who were fortunate enough to be 
             around to learn. He taught us how to be Senators, he 
             taught us how to bear sadness and brutality without 
             bitterness or surrender or despair. He did so by just 
             being what he was.
               Mr. President, all that even the greatest of scientists 
             can do is to try to interpret and apply the laws, the 
             immutable laws, the eternal laws of God. Scientists cannot 
             create matter and they cannot create life. They can mold 
             and develop and shape and use them, but they cannot call 
             them into being. They are compelled to admit the truth of 
             the old nursery rhyme, which I am sure the Presiding 
             Officer and the other distinguished Senator from Oklahoma 
             will remember along with me:

                  Nor you, nor I, nor anybody knows,
                  how oats, peas, beans, and barley grows.

               But the Scriptures tell us of the laws of God, and 
             reveal to us the Source from whence this Earth, the 
             universe, and all of us who dwell here--for a split 
             second, as it were--between two eternities: ``In the 
             beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.'' The 
             Scriptures also reveal to us that God created man from the 
             dust of the ground, and ``breathed into his nostrils the 
             breath of life, and the man became a living soul.'' God 
             then gave Adam a helpmate, Eve, and from those ancient 
             parents, we have all descended, and from them, we have all 
             inherited death. Only a Milton could so incisively provide 
             a fitting epilogue to man's fall from grace.

                  They, looking back,
                  all the eastern side beheld of Paradise,
                  so late their happy seat,
                  waved over by that flaming brand; the gate
                  with dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms.
                  Some natural tears they dropped,
                  but wiped them soon;
                  the world was all before them where to choose
                  their place of rest, and Providence their guide.
                  They, hand in hand, with wondering steps and slow,
                  through Eden took their solitary way.

               As so, it is our inevitable lot to die. But the 
             Scriptures also tell us that we may live again in that 
             long lost paradise from whence our parents came. There was 
             a man in the land of Uz, whose name appears in extra-
             Biblical texts as early as 2000 years before Christ. His 
             name was Job, and from his patient, suffering lips came 
             the age-old question, ``If a man die, shall he live 
             again'', and later from his lips came the answer to his 
             own question: ``Oh, that my words were written and 
             engraved with an iron pen upon a ledge of rock forever, 
             for I know that my Redeemer liveth and some day He shall 
             stand upon the earth; and though after my skin worms 
             destroy this Body, yet, in my flesh shall I see God; whom 
             I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and 
             not another.''
               Mr. President, many years ago I read a story of an old 
             Anglo-Saxon king who had his barons at a great banquet. 
             They were eating their venison and quaffing their ale. It 
             was a bitter night outside. The storm raged. The snow was 
             falling thick and fast. Suddenly, into the rude chamber in 
             which they were gathered, there flew through some crack or 
             crevice in the roof a little bird. Blinded by the light 
             and perplexed, it flew wildly here and there and beat 
             itself against the rude beams. Finally, it found another 
             crevice and out it went again into the night. The king, 
             advanced in years, spoke to his barons and said,

                  That bird is like a life;
                  it comes from out of the night.
                  It flits and flies around a little while,
                  blinded by the light,
                  and then it goes back out into the night again.

               Mr. President, as we witness the passing of a great and 
             good man like John Stennis, we may well take appraisal of 
             our own public and private merits and remember that we, 
             too, only flit about for a little while, our voices 
             resound in this Chamber for a few days or months or years, 
             and then we are gone. These things are evanescent. Real 
             substantial qualities of honesty, integrity, gentleness, 
             modesty, and generosity will make the life of John Stennis 
             remembered when much of what we say and do here in this 
             Chamber shall have passed away and perished. John Stennis 
             is gone.

                  . . . with your skysail set
                  For ports beyond the margin of the stars . . .

               And those of us who had the honor and privilege of 
             serving with him may say of him:

                  His life was gentle,
                  and the elements so mixed in him
                  that Nature might stand up and say to all the 
                world,
                  ``This was a man.''

               To the family and friends of John Cornelius Stennis, my 
             wife Erma and I extend our deepest sympathy.

                  I saw the sun sink in the golden west,
                  No angry cloud obscured its latest ray.
                  Around the couch on which it sank to rest
                  Shone all the splendor of a summer day.
                  And long, though lost to view, that radiant light,
                  Reflected from the sky, delayed the night.
                  Thus, when a good man's life comes to a close,
                  No doubts arise to cloud his soul with gloom.
                  But faith triumphant on each feature glows,
                  And benedictions fill the sacred room.
                  And long do men his virtues wide proclaim,
                  While generations rise to bless his name.

               Mr. President, I yield the floor.

               Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I wish to compliment my 
             friend and colleague, Senator Byrd, for the tribute to our 
             colleague, Senator Stennis, who served in this body so 
             ably, so well, for so long. His service of 41 years--only 
             the Senator from West Virginia would know who has exceeded 
             that besides Senator Hayden, I guess--but he had a 
             remarkable tenure in the Senate.
               I had the pleasure of serving with Senator Stennis. He 
             was a person that had enormous credibility and reputation 
             prior to my coming to the Senate going back for many 
             years. He was even referred to in the Senate as a person 
             known as the ethical watch guard of the Senate, and 
             certainly a Southern gentleman in every single way. He was 
             a real asset to this body, certainly to the State of 
             Mississippi and to our country, as well. We shall all miss 
             him, but not forget the contributions that he made to his 
             State and country.
               I compliment my colleague from West Virginia for a 
             beautiful tribute to a wonderful colleague and Senator.

               Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I thank my friend.

               Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I first want to commend the 
             distinguished Democratic leader for his comments about our 
             departed colleague and my good friend, Senator John C. 
             Stennis. Today, there was a very appropriate editorial 
             published in the Clarion-Ledger, in Jackson, Mississippi, 
             describing the effect that Senator Stennis had, by virtue 
             of his service in the Senate, on the State of Mississippi.
               I commend the editor for such a fine article and I ask 
             unanimous consent that it be printed in the Record.
               There being no objection, the article was ordered to be 
             printed in the Record, as follows:

                      [From the Clarion-Ledger, April 25, 1995]
                John C. Stennis: Integrity Set Standard for Congress
               The accomplishments of former U.S. Senator John C. 
             Stennis could fill pages.
               Stennis' long and full life ended Sunday at age 93, and 
             during the next few days, Mississippians will hear many of 
             the Senator's accomplishments recounted.
               His long and distinguished career in government left his 
             mark on many of the policies of the United States, 
             especially in military matters. There are many 
             institutions that bear his name, even an aircraft carrier.
               Mississippi is a much different place, and a much better 
             place, because of the policies and economic development 
             projects he brought to the state.
               But, all of the political achievements, the things that 
             most politicians are measured by, fall short when it comes 
             to Senator Stennis.
               Stennis was, above all else, a man of integrity, a true 
             statesman, whose adherence to honor and code of conduct 
             made him legendary in the U.S. Senate, which he loved so 
             dearly.
               That is indeed a rare quality, especially in the mean-
             spirited politics of today.
               Senator Stennis' reputation for fairness made him a 
             trusted colleague and confidant of Presidents of both 
             parties. He was known as the ``conscience of the Senate'' 
             because of his high ethical standards and respect for the 
             institution.
               Throughout his long career, integrity and service were 
             watchwords. It is appropriate that, of the institutions 
             that bear his name, the Stennis Center for Public Service 
             at Mississippi State University seeks to encourage young 
             people to public service careers.
               In his 1947 campaign, Stennis stated a simple creed: ``I 
             want to plow a straight furrow right down to the end of my 
             row.''
               Senator John C. Stennis succeeded with that pledge.

               Mr. President, I want to invite the attention of the 
             Senate to a couple of points that are made in this fine 
             tribute. After talking about many of the things that 
             Senator Stennis did for the State the editorial writer 
             then says:

               But, all of the political achievements, the things that 
             most politicians are measured by, fall short when it comes 
             to Senator Stennis.
               Stennis was, above all else, a man of integrity, a true 
             statesman, whose adherence to honor and code of conduct 
             made him legendary in the U.S. Senate, which he loved so 
             dearly.

               Mr. President, as I was beginning to think about putting 
             this in the Record for the information of Senators, I 
             realized that I sit at the desk that was occupied by 
             Senator Stennis during the time he served in the Senate.
               As you know, there is a tradition here to put your name 
             in the desk drawer like schoolboys used to. Senator 
             Stennis' name is in this desk drawer which he wrote in 
             there and put the date that he began service, 1947, and a 
             dash, and never did, of course, put the date on which his 
             service ended, which the distinguished Democratic leader 
             pointed out was in 1989.
               One other aspect of this desk is that not only has it 
             been occupied by many Mississippians over the years, 
             Jefferson Davis, to name one, John Sharp Williams, a very 
             distinguished Senator who had served as Democratic leader 
             in the House before he was elected to the Senate, and then 
             served three terms in the Senate and probably was one of 
             the most respected national figures of his day serving in 
             the Congress. And serving from Mississippi it made our 
             State very proud. But Senator Stennis occupied this desk 
             from 1947--well over 41 years, as the Senators know.
               But toward the end of his career he lost a leg to 
             cancer, and this desk was located in the rear of the 
             Chamber. So his wheelchair could move right up to the 
             desk. But he never failed to rise and address the Senate 
             even though he was confined to the wheelchair and had only 
             one leg. He had the carpenters put a special place here 
             where a bar could be fitted. There are two holes carved 
             for wooden inserts in this desk to hold that bar. And the 
             bar would rest inside the desk. Most Senators put the rule 
             books of the Senate and a couple of other reference books 
             in the top of their desk. But that had simply a bar there. 
             He would put it there and pull himself up, and with that 
             one leg stand erect to address the Senate because he 
             respected the institution so much, its traditions, and its 
             customs, always pointing out to other Senators that we 
             should be in order; and having a tremendous influence 
             because of his presence in this body.
               The Senate is much better off because of his service 
             here. The State of Mississippi is truly blessed to have 
             been the State represented in the U.S. Senate by John C. 
             Stennis.

               Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I would like to speak for a few 
             minutes this evening on a subject close to my heart, and 
             that is the memory of our former colleague, John C. 
             Stennis, who passed away on Sunday, April 23, at the age 
             of 93. Senator Stennis served in this body for over 41 
             years, from 1947 to 1989.
               For a long number of years, as I was growing up and 
             following the activities of the Congress of the United 
             States, Senator Stennis was one of my heroes, and that was 
             long before I came to U.S. Senate. John Stennis 
             personified for me the image of what a Senator should be, 
             and that image inspired me as I considered whether to seek 
             a seat in the U.S. Senate in the 1972 election. From my 
             first days in the Senate, John Stennis was a patient 
             mentor, a strong and valuable colleague, and a cherished 
             friend.
               It has been said that ``Great men are like eagles, they 
             do not flock together. You find them one at a time, 
             soaring alone, using their skills and strengths to reach 
             new heights and to seek new horizons.'' Such an eagle was 
             John Stennis.
               John Stennis was a Senator's Senator. He was gentle and 
             courteous in conduct, but tough and strong in conviction 
             and in character. He was a man of singular purpose and 
             broad vision--yet he was sensitive, very sensitive, to the 
             needs and the wishes of others.
               John Stennis personified the highest ideals of honor and 
             integrity within the U.S. Senate. Members of the Senate 
             from both parties and from widely divergent philosophical 
             points of view treasured his steadfast leadership, his 
             fearless courage, his kindness toward others, his 
             unselfish devotion to public service, his love and respect 
             for the U.S. Senate, the Congress, his reverence for the 
             U.S. Constitution, and his unshakable faith in God.
               Senator Stennis was an outstanding lawyer and judge 
             before he came to the Senate, and his judicial temperament 
             marked every aspect of his Senate service. Time after 
             time, the Senate turned to him to address the most 
             difficult and divisive issues, such as the conduct of 
             Senator Joseph McCarthy.
               When the Senate established the first Select Committee 
             on Standards and Conduct, which was the predecessor of the 
             Ethics Committee, it was only natural that Senator Stennis 
             was selected as the first chairman. From 1961 to 1981, he 
             served as chairman of the Armed Services Committee. As 
             chairman, he set a standard that all of his successors 
             strive to meet. He was a man of conviction, strong, moral 
             character, and absolute and total courage. Despite much 
             adversity--a life-threatening gunshot wound in 1973, right 
             after I came to the Senate that tragedy happened, also the 
             loss in 1983 of his beloved wife, Miss Coy, and the 
             challenges of serious operations in later years, through 
             all of that he served the people of Mississippi and the 
             people of this Nation with courage and with strength.
               Chairman Stennis was the Senate's preeminent authority 
             on military affairs. His career spanned the period of the 
             cold war. He came to the Senate in 1947, the year the 
             Marshall plan was announced. He left in 1989, the year the 
             Berlin Wall came down. He played a very large role in 
             those events and all the events in between. He had guided 
             this body through the difficult years of the post-Vietnam 
             era and through the subsequent revitalization of America's 
             Armed Forces.
               Senator Stennis consistently supported a strong national 
             defense even in times when it was not popular to do so. I 
             recall clearly the first few years after I came to the 
             Senate in the early 1970's, when virtually all defense 
             programs were being challenged one after another on the 
             Senate floor. Senator Stennis remained in the Chamber 
             steadfast for hours and weeks and sometimes even months 
             while the bill was pending in the Senate, making the case 
             for maintaining a strong defense for our Nation.
               At the same time, Senator Stennis was downright 
             intolerant of wasted and misspent dollars, and he 
             consistently opposed those who simply wanted to write a 
             Pentagon blank check.
               Senator Stennis remembered well the lessons of pre-World 
             War II isolationism and he constantly opposed the 
             recurring isolationist impulse, especially during the 
             difficult post-Vietnam years. He was a rock of support for 
             NATO at a time when there was strong opposition in the 
             country to foreign military alliances. One of the first 
             assignments he gave me when I got to the Senate was going 
             to NATO and coming back and reporting to him on what I 
             found there.
               Yet he remained skeptical of excessive military 
             involvement overseas and he expressed great concern about 
             the plans for intervention in Vietnam before that 
             intervention occurred. Once the Nation was committed to 
             war, however, he always believed that American forces 
             should be provided with the means necessary and the 
             backing to accomplish the objectives assigned to them.
               It was my privilege to serve with him since coming to 
             the Senate in 1973 until he left in 1989. He was my 
             friend. He was my mentor. He remained my hero. I will miss 
             him, and I will miss his sound advice and wise judgment. 
             During my first campaign for the Senate in 1972, I came to 
             Washington to meet with Senator Stennis. This was before I 
             was elected in November but after I had won the Democratic 
             primary. I told him of my strong interest in military 
             affairs, and I asked for his support in obtaining a seat 
             on the Armed Services Committee if I should be elected.
               I will always be grateful for his assurances of support 
             and his assistance once I arrived, and certainly all of 
             that played a very important part in my Senate career. 
             With his support, I obtained a seat on the Committee on 
             Armed Services, and I promptly sought his advice on how I 
             should fulfill my duties. He told me, and I recall it 
             well, that the best way to learn about the Defense 
             Department and the military services was to deal directly 
             and extensively with the men and women in uniform as well 
             as the civilian employees of the Department of Defense. He 
             encouraged me to listen to their advice and understand 
             their point of view, to remain open and objective but 
             always to at least listen.
               He appointed me to be the chairman of the newly created 
             Manpower and Personnel Subcommittee which gave me the 
             opportunity to follow his advice in a great number of 
             details and with considerable amount of time.
               Over the years, I listened to and learned from Senator 
             Stennis as we debated the great issues of national 
             security and other national affairs that faced our country 
             in the 1970's and 1980's, and the lessons learned then 
             still apply almost every day in the Senate in the 1990's. 
             It was a marvelous education in the ways of the Senate, 
             the conduct of national security affairs and the 
             Constitution of the United States.
               In 1987, Senator Stennis became chairman of the 
             Appropriations Committee, and I became chairman of the 
             Armed Services Committee. It was my good fortune to have 
             him continue to sit on that committee, to be able to begin 
             my chairmanship with Senator Stennis at my side, because I 
             frequently consulted with him and benefited from his 
             advice on the problems and issues that arose under the 
             jurisdiction of the Armed Services Committee as well as 
             many other matters that came to the floor of the Senate.
               When Senator Stennis first came to this body, he said in 
             his classic direct style, ``I wish to plow a straight 
             furrow right down to the end of my row.'' There is no 
             doubt he did exactly that. Senator Stennis grew up on a 
             farm and he knew how difficult it was to plow a straight 
             furrow with a mule. You cannot plow a straight line to 
             your immediate goal or mark a stake in the field unless 
             you keep your eye on the distant point that establishes 
             your sight line. That is the way John Stennis lived. He 
             staked out his immediate goals, but he always kept his eye 
             on the distant goal, the values and principles that 
             enabled him to plow a straight furrow right to the end of 
             the row.
               Mr. President, I also remember well his advice to me 
             when I came to the Senate. I hope I never will forget 
             this. He said, ``Sam, some new Senators grow and some 
             simply swell. Make sure you continue to grow.''
               Mr. President, no higher honor has come my way than 
             serving in the Senate with John Stennis. When he retired a 
             few years back, I said then it was hard for me to imagine 
             the Senate without John Stennis at his desk. It is now 
             hard for me to imagine the Nation without the benefit of 
             his talent, counsel, and his sterling example. We will 
             miss him. We will all miss him. But his legacy of 
             integrity and devoted service to the country will inspire 
             the Senate and the Nation and young people particularly 
             for generations to come.
               Mr. President, Colleen, my wife, and I extend our 
             sympathies to his son, John Hampton Stennis, his daughter, 
             Mrs. Margaret Stennis Womble, and to all of his 
             grandchildren and great grandchildren, indeed, to all of 
             his family and his friends, and we thank the people of 
             Mississippi for sending this giant to the Senate for the 
             number of years that he served. The people of Mississippi 
             and the people of this Nation can be very proud of Senator 
             Stennis. He will be remembered in history as one of the 
             giants of the Senate. As long as there is a Senate, John 
             Stennis will be remembered for his service, for his 
             integrity, and for his character.
               I thank the Chair.

               Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I wish to pay honor today 
             to one of the great Senators of this century, John 
             Cornelius Stennis. His roots began at the turn of the 
             century as a young farmboy, in the fertile soil of Kemper 
             County, MS. And while his subsequent career was to take 
             him to far away places, and to positions of great honor in 
             our Nation's Government, his beloved home country was 
             never far from his mind. Second only to service to his 
             Nation, his dedication to the State of Mississippi was 
             legendary.
               He had amassed a distinguished record of public service, 
             even before coming to the Senate in 1947. A Phi Betta 
             Kappa law school graduate, he served as a State 
             Representative, district attorney, and State circuit court 
             judge. But it was here in the Senate where we shall best 
             remember him. For more than 42 years, this Nation had the 
             benefit of his wisdom and his guidance. He was the epitome 
             of a Southern gentleman, and fairness and integrity were 
             constants in his conduct. It was no mere happenstance that 
             he was our first chairman of the Select Committee on 
             Standards and Conduct. He was for decades the foremost 
             guardian of our Nation's defense, forcefully and 
             relentlessly pursuing strong defense programs throughout 
             the Cold War years. His credentials as ``Mr. Defense'' 
             made even more remarkable his misgivings and warnings to 
             the Nation on involvement in combat in Vietnam, and he was 
             a major author of our first war powers legislation. 
             Chairman of Armed Services, chairman of Appropriations, 
             President Pro Tempore--his achievements here on this floor 
             and in this body have been equaled by few.
               And who among us who knew him will ever forget his quiet 
             courage? He quietly brushed aside the impacts of being 
             shot and robbed while walking home. Years later, after 
             loosing a leg to cancer, he refused to yield to 
             adversity--always rising to address this body, exuding 
             dignity and determination with every action.
               John Stennis was a patriot--a statesman--a Senator in 
             the finest traditions of the word. He was one of the great 
             lions of our assembly, and we will miss him. I read today 
             where he once responded to a question about how he would 
             like to be remembered. He said he hoped that one could say 
             of him that ``He did his best.'' Well, that he did. And 
             his best will serve as a reminder and a standard to all of 
             us, for generations to come.
               Mr. President, the distinguished Senator from Georgia 
             has touched on it when he said I wish to hoe a straight 
             furrow right down the field, that was John Stennis. I can 
             hear him now. He had those sayings about not swelling but 
             growing in experience. The reverence and respect at that 
             particular time was for Senators listening and learning 
             and profiting from experience. Now the pledge is when you 
             come to town you are not going to listen to anybody; you 
             have a contract. You are going to vote for it. And by the 
             way, do not give me any of your experience because in 6 
             years I am gone. It is an entirely different atmosphere.
               And when you see, as the Senator from Georgia has said 
             in such eloquent terms, one of the finest, I am just 
             deeply moved.
               John Stennis and I became very close amid serving on 
             committees together, particularly the Appropriations 
             Committee later on.
               But his family--the Peden clan--was from Fountain Inn, 
             South Carolina, where Mr. Quillen was born along with 
             other persons of eminence.
               Invariably he would come back to South Carolina for the 
             annual Peden clan reunion.
               I figured, like the Senator from Georgia, that he was my 
             sort of patron and leader. I listened to him many a time. 
             I can tell you this. John Stennis was a man of this 
             institution. We have Senator Byrd, who really reveres the 
             Senate as an institution. John Stennis revered the U.S. 
             Senate as an institution.
               And as much as we liked each other and as close friends 
             as we were, when I was chairman of the Budget Committee, 
             he followed it very, very closely. When I was chairman 
             back in 1980, he would say, ``Fritz, you're right. We have 
             to somehow pay our bills. We are eating our seed corn.'' 
             He would make a little talk on the floor, not only with 
             respect to military affairs, with tremendous authority, 
             but with respect to fiscal matters.
               And later on, when I was not the chairman of the 
             committee, but I talked to him and tried to get a vote 
             with respect to that budget, he would say, ``I'm sticking 
             with the chairman.'' I know how you feel about this, but 
             we have got to stay with the chairman.''
               I can hear him now. He was an institution man. And that 
             says a lot for the stability of the body and the courtesy 
             here and the ethics that we have. He set the highest 
             standard of anybody I have ever known.
               I will never forget the afternoon he was shot. 
             Invariably, we would get together down at the gym there at 
             this time, 6:30 going on 7 o'clock, and get a workout. He 
             said, ``You've got to try to keep up with Strom.'' That is 
             my senior Senator. He said, ``You will find if you stay in 
             good physical shape, you will be able to keep up with 
             Strom.''
               We would work out. They had this wheel that you get down 
             on your knees and you go forward and pull it backward and 
             forward, and everything else. He was on that wheel the 
             afternoon he was shot. He left, if I remember correctly, 
             about 6:15 and he was shot about 6:30 or 6:45.
               He later related, when I went to see him, he said: ``You 
             know, I'm lucky. These fellows told me they wanted money 
             and I did not have any money. And I said, ``Take my watch, 
             anything else, my ring.''
               And they cursed him and just fired five shots into his 
             middle, his stomach, pancreas, and lungs--his insides.
               He walked up to his house and talked to Miss Coy, Mrs. 
             Stennis, his wife. He said, ``Call an ambulance and call 
             Walter Reed.''
               The ambulance came. And as they lifted him up, he 
             remembered well hearing the chief of police, who had 
             reached the home at that time, saying, ``All right, take 
             him over to George Washington Hospital.'' He raised up on 
             that stretcher--the last he ever remembered, he said, 
             prior to coming to some 9 hours later--and said, ``Take me 
             to Walter Reed. They are waiting for me there.''
               He said that was the real fortunate part, because when 
             he got to Walter Reed, they had two Army surgeons who had 
             finished a 2-week lecture course to the Army surgeons 
             around the country on bullet wounds and shrapnel wounds 
             and battlefield surgery and that kind of thing, 
             particularly with respect to the loss of blood.
               His operation took 9 hours. I will never forget him 
             saying that. He said, ``Had they not had that hard 
             experience of when to stop and replenish and when to move 
             forward . . .'' They had to sew up all his innards or he 
             would have been long since gone.
               He came back and, as Senator Nunn points out, he did not 
             slow down at all. Later, when the cancer got his legs, he 
             did not.
               As Senator Cochran pointed out--who sits at the Stennis 
             desk--he believed in this institution. He attended 
             regularly all the sessions. He attended these debates.
               I think television has ruined us all. Perhaps some would 
             listen back in their offices. But you do not have the open 
             exchange in the most deliberative body. You are here and 
             get quips that staff gives you. They have prepared remarks 
             and they run out and the Record is full and it appears it 
             is a deliberative effort. Not at all.
               Senator Stennis did not like that, and he said so. He 
             attended the debates. He attended all the votes and he 
             kept going until the very, very end.
               Unfortunately, he was not as conscious and alert as he 
             could have been the last few years. I wanted to go to see 
             him, but my staff who worked intimately with him on the 
             Armed Services Committee and later on the Appropriations 
             Committee, said that, ``Poor John would not recognize you 
             right now.''
               So he has gone to his just reward after the most 
             distinguished career in the U.S. Senate of over 41 years.
               He was a Senator's Senator if there ever was one in this 
             body. He was not only, as pointed out, an outstanding 
             authority on military affairs, but he had that fundamental 
             feel of paying the bills and being straightforward in his 
             treatment here with all the Senators and setting the 
             highest standard of ethical conduct that you could 
             possibly imagine.
               We need that inspiration today that, unfortunately, we 
             do not have. We are all going to miss him very, very 
             badly.
               I am sorry tomorrow I cannot be at the session relative 
             to the continued debate on product liability. I want to 
             attend those services. But we will be back here at 4:45.
               But it is good that we have those who have served with 
             him and remember him so well that will be there and be 
             with his family. His daughter retired first in Charleston, 
             where her husband was the dean at the College of 
             Charleston and later up in Greenville, South Carolina. So 
             I am looking forward to seeing that family.
               But I will never forget the inspiration he has given for 
             all of us who have served with him to continue to serve.

                                             Wednesday, April 26, 1995.

               Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent 
             that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of 
             Senate Resolution 111, submitted earlier today by Senators 
             Dole, Daschle, Cochran, and Lott.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
               The legislative clerk read as follows:

               A resolution (S. Res. 111) relative to the death of the 
             Honorable John C. Stennis, late a Senator from the State 
             of Mississippi.

               The Senate proceeded to consider the resolution.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the resolution 
             is considered and agreed to.
               So the resolution (S. Res. 111) was agreed to, as 
             follows:

                                      S. Res. 
               Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow 
             and deep regret the announcement of the death of the 
             Honorable John C. Stennis, late a Senator from the State 
             of Mississippi.
               Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these 
             resolutions to the House of Representatives and transmit 
             an enrolled copy thereof to the family of the deceased.
               Resolved, That when the Senate recesses today, it recess 
             as a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased 
             Senator.

               Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the 
             vote by which the resolution was agreed to.

               Mr. FORD. I move to lay that motion on the table.
               The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

                                              Thursday, April 27, 1995.

               Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, Senator John Stennis will 
             long be remembered as the ``conscience of the Senate'' for 
             his personal religious convictions and his many years of 
             work on the Senate code of ethics. I will always think of 
             him as a friend, and as one of the most effective chairmen 
             of the Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations 
             Committee. We shared many of the same beliefs in that the 
             United States should always strive for the most effective 
             Armed Forces in the world, and his leadership was always 
             deserving of respect and admiration.
               Despite physical ailments and the death of his beloved 
             wife of 52 years, Senator Stennis remained committed to 
             this body and to his countrymen. He could always be found 
             in his offices, never leaving until the Senate had 
             adjourned for the day. He never gave up when he believed 
             that he was right.
               We need men and women who will fight for what they 
             believe, and we should look to John Stennis as an 
             excellent example of the forthrightness and dedication 
             necessary to be effective leaders today.
               Since Senator Stennis retired from this body in 1989, 
             the Senate has been denied his wisdom and his leadership. 
             Our entire country mourns his loss.

               Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask Unanimous consent that all 
             Senators have until the close of business on May 10, 1995, 
             to submit eulogies for our former colleague, the Senator 
             from Mississippi, Mr. Stennis, and that at that time 
             eulogies be printed as a Senate document.

               The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so 
             ordered.

                                                  Tuesday, May 2, 1995.

               Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, it was my honor, a unique 
             honor and special pleasure to serve in this body as the 
             State colleague of John C. Stennis for 10 years. I deeply 
             appreciated the bond of friendship, respect and trust that 
             developed between us as we worked together to represent 
             the interests of the State of Mississippi, and its 
             citizens, in the U.S. Senate.
               He had already established a reputation for intelligent 
             leadership in this body when I arrived here, and I 
             considered it my good fortune to be able to learn first 
             hand from him and from his example. We were never rivals. 
             We talked almost every day. He was always friendly and 
             courteous to me, as he was with every other Senator. 
             Although we were members of different political parties, 
             that did not interfere with or detract from our 
             relationship.
               Our State has had its share of demagogues, as all other 
             States have, and I have deplored their excesses and have 
             been embarrassed by them. But in Senator Stennis we saw a 
             man as pure in heart and deed with less inclination to 
             inflame the passions of the voters with exaggerated and 
             flamboyant rhetoric as any we have ever elected to public 
             office, and I admired him for that. He preferred to win a 
             debate or an election on the basis of the well argued 
             evidence, rather than to prey upon the fears or suspicions 
             or prejudices of the audience.
               He was the kind of Senator I try to be.
               During his more than 41 years of service as a U.S. 
             Senator, he was steady, conscientious and extraordinarily 
             successful in every assignment and undertaking.
               From his earliest days to his last days he gave the full 
             measure of energy and his ability to the service of this 
             body and to his State. He saw that as his duty, and he 
             took that as seriously as anyone who has ever served here.
               Others have recalled in their speeches the positions of 
             responsibility he held and the legislation he authored and 
             caused to be adopted. There were many of each, and they 
             are persuasive testimony to his effectiveness as a 
             Senator. I will not try to recount all of them.
               What may not be as easily measured is the influence he 
             had in the Senate by the force of his character. He was 
             the epitome of rectitude, of fairness, of decorum. His 
             selection to be the first chairman of the Senate's Select 
             Committee on Standards and Conduct was an illustration of 
             the view that others in the body had of him, and the 
             confidence they had in him to do what was right and just.
               That is why he was so admired and appreciated in 
             Mississippi. He got things done that helped our State, and 
             its people, but he was more than an effective Senator. He 
             was totally honest and trustworthy.

               Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I join with my colleagues 
             today in remembering a man who embodied the U.S. Senate 
             perhaps better than anyone, Senator John C. Stennis. Known 
             as a Senator's Senator and the conscience of the 
             institution, his presence for 41 years in the Senate was 
             formidable, yet comforting and reassuring.
               While his departure represents the passing of an era and 
             is cause for our grief, it is also certainly cause to 
             rejoice, for our friend is no doubt experiencing the 
             rewards of a faithful heart and humble service. The legacy 
             he leaves is one defined by his strength, integrity, and 
             compassion.
               Growing up in rural Mississippi, John Cornelius Stennis 
             learned the lessons that would last him a lifetime. Such 
             lessons molded a man whose southern courtesy would become 
             a mark of dignity and distinction. After receiving a law 
             degree from the University of Virginia in 1927, young John 
             Stennis spent 19 full years serving first as a State 
             representative, then district prosecuting attorney and 
             finally a circuit judge before being elected to the U.S. 
             Senate in 1947.
               Much in the same manner Senator Stennis took so many of 
             us under his wing, upon his arrival in the Senate, it was 
             Senator Richard B. Russell who mentored the like-minded 
             Mississippian. Soon, Senator Stennis' sharp mind and 
             unmatched work ethic earned him seats on the powerful 
             Armed Services and Appropriations Committees. As chairman 
             of the new Armed Services Preparedness Subcommittee, 
             Senator Stennis became a watchdog for the Department of 
             Defense and the armed services. His fair investigations 
             and scrutiny of these organizations quickly secured him a 
             reputation which would never be tarnished: He was 
             analytical, critical, and he held unwavering convictions.
               The impact John Stennis had over this 41 years in the 
             U.S. Senate surpasses description. Early in his Senate 
             career he courageously spoke against McCarthyism. While 
             assuring America would have the strongest and most capable 
             military on the planet, he demanded accountability for 
             each defense dollar spent. While always standing by his 
             commitment to a strong military, he also began to see the 
             growing danger of our Federal deficit and supported 
             necessary defense budget cutbacks. A consummate 
             professional, Chairman Stennis commented more than once 
             that his work was his play. Indeed, the joy with which he 
             carried out our Nation's business was contagious-our 
             Senator's Senator was humorous and likable, a role model 
             to Members on both sides of the aisle.
               The trials Senator Stennis experienced during his sunset 
             years in the U.S. Senate are almost unthinkable. He was 
             shot twice by a burglar in 1973, but he returned to the 
             work of the Senate; he lost his wife of 50 years in 1983, 
             but he returned to the work of the Senate; and he lost a 
             leg to cancer in 1984, but again he returned to the work 
             of the Senate. Through all this, Senator Stennis remained 
             a commanding presence. As the distinguished senior Senator 
             from Virginia once put it, Senator Stennis ``. . . had a 
             great spiritual reservoir that came to his rescue and 
             served as a solid, strong, foundation for him.'' Well, the 
             spiritual reservoir overflowed and served as a solid and 
             strong foundation for the rest of us as well.
               To more than one Senator, John C. Stennis was more than 
             a colleague, even more than a mentor. Indeed, I am not the 
             only Senator still in this body who would call Senator 
             Stennis a father figure--a figure worthy of our respect 
             and deserving of our love. As long as he was in the 
             Senate, I was his student--especially on the 
             Appropriations Committee. Even when serving as chairman it 
             was his counsel and leadership, his spirit and presence 
             which guided me through the many hours of committee 
             sessions and floor deliberations. To Senator John C. 
             Stennis I owe a debt of gratitude that is both 
             professional and personal. Seeing his patient and humble 
             years presiding as chairman and as President Pro Tempore 
             brought me peace of mind as I struggled through the 
             difficult periods of my own service. And what would 
             Senator Stennis' response to this tribute be? Well, about 
             7 years ago, upon his retirement, he remarked that he ``. 
             . . was just trying to do what looked like to be the duty 
             and keep it up the best he could.'' He certainly did, and 
             much, much more.
               In the Book of Ezekiel, the third chapter, God declares 
             the Prophet to be a watchman over the house of Israel. 
             Ezekiel is commanded to warn the rebellious Israelities of 
             God's impending judgment. Well, for the past several 
             decades, John Cornelius Stennis has been our watchman. He 
             has always cared for, and often admonished, a dignified 
             yet sometimes unruly body of U.S. Senators. He has and 
             will continue to represent the history of this body, to 
             represent the integrity of this body and to represent the 
             stature of this body. For his years of service, 
             leadership, and friendship, I am eternally grateful.

                                                Wednesday, May 3, 1995.

               Mr. HEFLIN. Mr. President, I would like to add my voice 
             to those which have already lamented the passing of our 
             dear former colleague from Mississippi, John Stennis. 
             About 25 of us went down to Mississippi last week to his 
             funeral to say goodbye to one of the true giants in the 
             history of this institution.
               I recall about 10 years ago, some Senators, including 
             myself, went to Senator Stennis' hometown of DeKalb, 
             Mississippi, where the people of DeKalb and surrounding 
             areas had gathered to help celebrate his birthday. There 
             was a great outpouring of love and genuine affection from 
             friends and neighbors who had known him, his father, and 
             others before him. No one really knows an individual in 
             the same way that the people of his hometown do, and you 
             could see that as they came together that day. There was 
             an authentic feeling of closeness and friendship.
               DeKalb is a small community, probably, smaller than the 
             one I come from. The people there--the salt of the earth--
             knew their favorite son, John Stennis, for his character 
             and integrity. The great outpouring of affection which was 
             on display that day was the best evidence anyone ever 
             needed of his graciousness, honesty, decency, and 
             dedication to principle. All of us there could see that he 
             stood very tall with those who knew him best.
               John Stennis and I had much in common, both of us from 
             southern families that go back for many generations. I 
             used to enjoy the stories he would tell about his early 
             years and how his father would raise cotton, transport it 
             over to Alabama, and ship it down the river to Mobile. We 
             were both judges at one time, which gave us a unique 
             perspective on government, individuals, and human nature 
             in general.
               John Cornelius Stennis was born on August 3, 1901, in 
             Kemper County, in the red clay hills of eastern 
             Mississippi. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from what is now 
             Mississippi State University in 1923 and 4 years later, 
             received his law degree from the University of Virginia. 
             Just 1 year later, he was elected to the Mississippi 
             Legislature. He later went on to serve as a district 
             prosecuting attorney and circuit judge.
               After 10 years on the bench, he ran in 1947 for the 
             Senate seat held by the flamboyant Senator Theodore G. 
             Bilbo and was elected over five opponents in November. His 
             campaign theme was ``I want to plow a straight furrow 
             right down to the end of my row,'' and that philosophy 
             guided the rest of his career in public service.
               Until his last campaign, in 1982, he was never seriously 
             challenged for reelection. Even then, facing future 
             Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour, then 
             only 34, he won by a 2-to-1 margin.
               In his early days in the Senate, John would work 16 
             hours a day, staying in the Senate until it adjourned and 
             then studying in the Library of Congress. He was 
             meticulous in his work, someone who would go over 
             something again and again until he finally mastered its 
             complexities. He was a commanding presence in the Senate 
             Chamber, where his voice carried such resonance. Even 
             after we had microphones, he would often speak without 
             one.
               John Stennis served in the Senate longer than all but 
             one other person in its history. When he retired on 
             January 3, 1989, he had served for 41 years, 1 month, and 
             29 days. During the 1960's and 1970's, he was the most 
             influential voice in Congress on military affairs. He was 
             chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and was 
             instrumental in the development of the Tennessee-Tombigbee 
             Waterway, which was extremely important to both our States 
             economically. He changed with the times, and began to 
             support civil rights measures. Due to his integrity, 
             diligence, and judgment, he was often called upon to 
             investigate controversial political matters. It became 
             routine to refer to him as the conscience of the Senate. 
             He was a patriarch and teacher to younger Members.
               In his later years, while his voice remained clear and 
             his mind sharp, he experienced serious physical problems. 
             He was shot and seriously wounded by a burglar at his home 
             in 1973, and had a leg amputated in 1984 due to cancer, 
             but each time, he returned to his beloved Senate much 
             sooner than had been expected.
               After he retired, Senator Stennis moved to Mississippi 
             State University campus, home of the John C. Stennis 
             Institute of Government and the John C. Stennis Center for 
             Public Service, created by Congress to train young 
             leaders. In one of his last interviews, he said, ``I do 
             believe the most important thing I can do now is to help 
             young people understand the past and prepare for the 
             future.''
               At that birthday celebration for John Stennis a decade 
             ago, I had the honor and pleasure of speaking. I ended my 
             speech with an old Irish prayer, which goes:

                  May the road rise to meet you.
                  May the wind always be at your back.
                  May the sun shine warm on your face.
                  And the rains fall soft on your shoulders,
                  And may the Good Lord hold you in the hollow of 
                his hand during the remainder of your days.

               He was a deeply religious man, and he told me he was 
             particularly glad I used the prayer as a closing on that 
             occasion.
               John Stennis' days are now over, and his passing gives 
             us reason to pause, reflect, and remember that this body 
             is a decidedly better institution, and the United States a 
             better nation, for having had the benefit of this 
             statesman's service for so many years.

                                                 Thursday, May 4, 1995.

               Mr. JOHNSTON. Mr. President, I would like to take a few 
             minutes to comment on the life and career of our departed 
             colleague and my good friend, Senator John C. Stennis, 
             whose long and full life ended on Sunday, April 23, at the 
             age of 93.
               When Senator Stennis retired in January 1989, he had 
             been in the Senate 41 years, 1 month, and 29 days. This 
             made his service in the Senate longer than all but one 
             other person in history.
               When I came to the U.S. Senate in November 1972, Senator 
             Stennis had been a Member of this body for nearly 25 
             years, and I had the great honor and privilege of serving 
             with Senator Stennis for 16 years--until he retired at the 
             close of the 100th Congress in 1989. So it is with sadness 
             that I pay tribute to the memory of this departed 
             colleague today.
               John Stennis was a man who anyone coming to know him 
             well would love and admire. I came to know him early on my 
             arrival in the Senate. He was from my neighboring State, 
             and I learned to follow his advice and leadership in 
             certain areas of our service together.
               It was also my privilege to serve with John Stennis on 
             the Appropriations Committee beginning in 1975. We had 
             nearly identical subcommittee assignments on the 
             committee. He was chairman of the then Public Works 
             Subcommittee, now the Energy and Water Subcommittee, when 
             I came aboard and I succeeded him as chairman of that 
             subcommittee when he became chairman of the Defense 
             Appropriations Subcommittee in 1978. We worked together on 
             many matters of mutual interest, especially the 
             Mississippi River and tributaries flood control works, and 
             other infrastructure improvements throughout the country. 
             He requested my assistance on the Tennessee-Tombigbee 
             Waterway project and I was pleased to help floor manage 
             the successful completion of that massive project which 
             opened in 1985. The New York Times called the Tenn-Tom 
             Senator Stennis' ``pyramid,'' and I am pleased to have had 
             a role with Senator Stennis on this impressive project.
               Mr. President, in our committee assignments and work 
             together, I was blessed as much as a fellow Senator could 
             be blessed by association, counsel, and advice from our 
             departed friend.
               As I mentioned earlier, it has been my honor and 
             privilege to be closely associated with Senator Stennis 
             for over 16 years of service together. As chairman and 
             ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, Senator 
             Stennis designated and commissioned me to floor manage and 
             handle various appropriations measures including 
             supplemental bills and continuing resolutions. He was my 
             chairman, and I was always happy and enthusiastic to carry 
             out his wishes on these matters.
               Mr. President, John Stennis was unqualifiedly and 
             unreservedly a gentleman in the finest American tradition. 
             He was a man whose word was as good as his bond. He had an 
             almost reverent sense of discretion and personal taste in 
             his relations to the greatest affairs of the Nation as in 
             his relations to individuals. He was indeed a giant in the 
             Senate.
               John Stennis was a Senator's Senator. He was gentle and 
             courteous in conduct, but tough and strong in conviction 
             and character. He personified the highest ideals of honor 
             and integrity within the Senate.
               John Stennis also possessed an extraordinary, and 
             indomitable, fortitude, spirit, and fearless courage. I 
             think of the several personal adversities he confronted 
             with such wonderful dignity and demeanor. In 1973, he was 
             shot by robbers in front of his house and left for dead. 
             In 1983, his beloved wife of 52 years, he called her Miss 
             Coy, passed away. In 1984, he lost a leg to cancer and was 
             confined thereafter to a wheelchair but, Senator Stennis 
             bore these adversities with such great strength and 
             courage that he served as a great inspiration to us all.
               We are thankful for his character, for his modesty and 
             selflessness, for his devotion to the Senate and his 
             family, for his outgoing good will to his friends, for his 
             high honor as a man.
               Mr. President, I traveled with a number of my colleagues 
             to the burial services for Senator Stennis on Wednesday, 
             April 26, at the Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb, 
             Mississippi. He was born in DeKalb County in the red clay 
             hills of eastern Mississippi and his mortal remains were 
             buried there in the family plot next to his beloved ``Miss 
             Coy'' and near his parents. Many of the Stennis' buried 
             there were known as professional people--doctors, lawyers, 
             teachers, and legislators. I was deeply impressed with the 
             tribute given Senator Stennis by his son, John Hampton 
             Stennis. He stated Senator Stennis' campaign pledge and 
             creed when Senator Stennis ran for the Senate in 1947, 
             after having served as a circuit court judge for 10 years. 
             That political creed was ``I want to plow a straight 
             furrow right down until the end of my row.'' Obviously, 
             Senator Stennis succeeded with that campaign pledge. And 
             that philosophy seems to have guided his entire political 
             career and his life. With those words John Hampton 
             captured the spirit and philosophy of John C. Stennis.
               Senator Stennis taught through example. He was left both 
             a challenge and a pattern of conduct for citizenship, as 
             well as public life.
               What can our citizens today find in John C. Stennis to 
             emulate? A course of conduct that inspires confidence; 
             absolute personal dedication; noble purposes always 
             foremost as a motive and objective; standards in public 
             and private life unexcelled; a willingness to serve; a 
             willingness to lead and endlessly carry the penalty of 
             leadership, and above all else, the attainment of being an 
             honorable man.
               I believe we find here a man and a record that fully 
             live up to the everlasting call of the poet, Gilbert 
             Holland, who said:

                  God, give us men! A time like this demands
                  Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready 
                hands;
                  Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
                  Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
                  Men who possess opinions and a will;
                  Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
                  Strong men, who live above the fog
                  In public duty and in private thinking.

               Mary and I extend our heartfelt sympathy to the family 
             of Senator Stennis--his daughter. Mrs. Margaret Jane 
             Womble, and son, John Hampton Stennis, and to his 
             grandchildren of whom he was so proud.

                                                   Friday, May 5, 1995.

               Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I just want to say a few 
             words about two U.S. Senators, one recently deceased and 
             one recently embarked on a spirited new part of life, both 
             of them dear friends of mine--Senator John Stennis of 
             Mississippi and Senator David Pryor of Arkansas.
               Mr. President, Senator Stennis served with my father in 
             the U.S. Senate. My father, Milward L. Simpson of Wyoming, 
             served here from 1962 until 1966. He was a former Governor 
             of Wyoming from 1954 until 1958, then came to the U.S. 
             Senate, elected to fulfill a 4-year term, or remaining 4-
             year term, of a young man who had been elected to the 
             Senate and died before he was sworn in. John Stennis and 
             Mrs. Stennis immediately greeted my father when he came 
             here in the most cordial way. They were very dear friends 
             of my parents.
               I must say that the philosophy of the western Senator, 
             my father, and the southern gentleman, the Senator from 
             Mississippi, were much the same with regard to national 
             defense, fiscal matters, issues of substance in the social 
             area, of the fabric of the country, and they became fast 
             friends. I recall very distinctly my father called John 
             Stennis ``Mr. Integrity.''
               My father invited John Stennis, Senator Willis 
             Robertson, and two other persons to Wyoming. I recall very 
             distinctly, I was a young man practicing law in Cody 
             Wyoming, and they asked me to join them. Dad took his two 
             Senate friends fishing. You might imagine that John had 
             not ever seen too much of Rocky Mountain trout fishing nor 
             the attire that accompanies such activities. I will never 
             forget him coming from his cabin, very nattily dressed, 
             and he said, ``Milward, is that what we wear when we fish 
             these trout?'' My father said, ``No, I think we need 
             something more than that, something a little different.'' 
             Off they went to enjoy a remarkable two days together.
               My father loved John Stennis, and when my father was the 
             recipient of the Milward L. Simpson Chair of Political 
             Science at the University of Wyoming, John Stennis served 
             as his honorary chairman, and said, ``If there is anything 
             I can do for my friend, Milward Simpson, I will do it.'' 
             So it was a great affection and relationship, a true 
             friendship. Then when I, of course, came to the Senate, 
             John Stennis was the first to greet me. He said, ``If 
             there is anything I can do to help you or smooth your path 
             here, let me do it.'' And he did.
               He was more than charitable, kind, and attentive to me 
             except, of course, when I tried to kill off the Tennessee 
             Tombigbee Waterway. Then there was a definite strain in 
             our relationship--momentary, fleeting. But he said, 
             ``Alan, I cannot believe that you would do that.'' And he 
             was right. I did not believe I could, and did not. That 
             great waterway is a great tribute to the personal 
             perseverance of John Stennis.
               But what he told me--and I shall never forget--he said 
             ``Alan, I have been watching you.'' I had been here maybe 
             4 years at the time. ``I have seen you work. I know how 
             hard you work.'' He really buoyed me up. He said, ``You 
             want to remember something in the Senate.'' He said, 
             ``People come here, and some grow and some swell.'' I 
             shall never forget the phrase. ``Some grow and some 
             swell.'' Indeed, we know both categories. I think I have 
             done a little of both. But when I did swell, I was put 
             down a peg or two, to get back to growing instead of 
             swelling. So I want to just pay tribute to John Stennis, 
             and I know my dear parents, both gone too, would have 
             wanted me to pay tribute to a very dear and lovely friend, 
             and to his memory, which will certainly be present in this 
             Chamber for the remainder of time. He was deeply loved, a 
             man of great stature, and truly a wonderful gentleman, 
             truly a gentleman.
               So God bless his son and his daughter who survive him. 
             They have a wonderful heritage.

               Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, recently I received a letter 
             from a Dr. Wayne M. Miller of Killeen, Texas. The letter 
             was in reference to my recent eulogy for the late and 
             beloved Senator John Cornelius Stennis.
               Dr. Miller wrote that he was deeply moved by the 
             tribute, so much so that he sat down and composed a poem 
             after hearing it. I call attention to the letter and to 
             the poem enclosed with it because it demonstrates not only 
             the sensitivity and talent of the writer, but also the 
             power and the passion which words can evoke.
               In these days of often destructive, rude, and even 
             dangerous rhetoric, let us stop and reflect on the 
             tremendous power of our words.
               Such reflection may help those of us in public life and 
             in the media to strive to use our voices to inspire rather 
             than to inflame.
               Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Dr. Wayne M. 
             Miller's letter and poem be printed in the Record.
               There being no objection, the material was ordered to be 
             printed in Record, as follows:

                                                        Killeen, TX,
                                                      April 27, 1995.
             U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd,
             Hart Senate Office Building,
             Washington, DC.

               Dear Senator Byrd, when I tuned in to a C-Span telecast 
             last night, I caught the latter part of your eloquent 
             tribute to the late Senator Stennis. It was truly one of 
             the greatest speeches I have ever heard. To be sure, it 
             had the two basic ingredients of a great speech: 
             substantive thinking, and rhetorical skills to effectively 
             express it.
               Although I am not a West Virginian, I have admired your 
             accomplishments and the stature of your leadership. I was 
             reared just eighty miles north of Wheeling, in a small 
             town of Harmony, Pennsylvania. After serving as chaplain 
             in the Air Force, I became a field director for American 
             Red Cross-and am now retired with that organization. For 
             the past sixteen years I have been teaching composition 
             and rhetoric at Central Texas College.
               Would it be possible to have a copy of your outstanding 
             speech? I would be ever so grateful!
               I am so happy that we still have statesmen of your 
             caliber in our nation's capital. I am enclosing a poem 
             which I wrote after listening to you on television. It 
             reflects, in some small measure, my responsiveness to your 
             deeply, moving words.

                  Respectfully,
                                                     Wayne M. Miller.
               Enclosure.

               To the Honorable Mr. Byrd, Distinguished U.S. Senator 
             from the State of West Virginia, after hearing the 
             stirring tribute delivered on the floor of Congress for 
             the late Senator John Stennis of Mississippi (1901-1995):

               Your well selected words, like highly polished marble
               (Uniquely Mr. Byrd's!)
               Were fitted in a pyramid of architectural marvel-
               Arousing such a sentiment in the shaping of your 
             thoughts
               Keen emotions were unharnessed from what common birth 
             allots
               And, untouted, undergirds
               The daily warp and woof of our fabric of existence.
               You talked about our too brief pilgrimage,
               And you pricked our unsuspecting Achilles Heel
               When you sharpened our awareness of fragility
               That stamps the mold of our mortality-
               And your sobering reflection of the little bird
               That fluttered through the crack from the raging storm
               Into the blinding light of the banquet hall,
               And then, so very soon, fluttered out again-
               Demonstrated our fitful wandering,
               Our groping sightlessness, our straining stammering,
               Our hurried exit from the ever-blinding light
               Of the babbling banquet hall and ``much ado about 
             nothing.''
               You addressed so poignantly the human predicament
               In the never ending journey ``east of Eden''--
               Never ending, that is,
               Until that special day of reckoning
               When all our shattered dreams, our broken vows . . .
               Will have their consummation
               In all-glorious transformation
               From the ugly to the beautiful
               And the painful to the joyful
               Where there will be no night,
               No parting and no sorrow.
               You led us like thirsting sheep
               To the oasis of our being--
               The wells of spiritual refreshment
               There first we saw the mirroring of our impoverished 
             selves
               And then experienced the waters that revive us
               And show us the way of day.
               You showed us what we are--
               And what we can become
               In the ``long journey into night''
               While we suffer in our little rooms,
               Waiting for the fateful end--
               To be transposed by the Great Composer
               From our discords into harmonies,
               Rejoicing with the Children of the Light.

               Wayne Meredith Miller, 1995 Nominee for Poet of the 
             Year.
                              Proceedings in the House
                                                   Monday, May 1, 1995.

                               MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE
               A message from the Senate by Mr. Lundregan, one of its 
             clerks, announced that the Senate had passed a resolution 
             of the following title, in which the concurrence of the 
             House is requested:

               Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow 
             and deep regret the announcement of the death of the 
             Honorable John C. Stennis, late a Senator from the State 
             of Mississippi.
               Resolved, That the Secretary communicate these 
             resolutions to the House of Representatives and transmit 
             an enrolled copy thereof to the family of the deceased.
               Resolved, That when the Senate recesses today, it recess 
             as a further mark of respect to the memory of the deceased 
             Senator.

                                                  Tuesday, May 2, 1995.

               The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the 
             House, the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Montgomery) is 
             recognized for 5 minutes.

               Mr. MONTGOMERY. Mr. Speaker, former Mississippi Senator 
             John C. Stennis died on April 23 at the age of 93. He 
             retired from the Senate in 1989. In the passage of time, 
             we sometimes forget events and accomplishments, but we 
             will not forget Senator Stennis.
               History will record Senator Stennis as one of the great 
             statesmen of the 20th century. He was so well respected in 
             Washington as a southern gentleman and as a man of 
             unquestioned integrity and character. But along with his 
             courtly southern manner, Senator Stennis was an effective 
             leader who was tough when it came to maintaining a strong 
             national defense and in looking out for his native state. 
             Through more than 40 years in the Nation's capital, his 
             first priority was to put Mississippi first.
               The legacy of John Stennis can be seen throughout the 
             state of Mississippi, from the Tennessee-Tombigbee 
             Waterway in the north, to Meridian's Naval Air Station to 
             the Stennis Space Center on the gulf coast. At points in 
             between, he was responsible for bringing Federal funds for 
             water systems and economic development projects that 
             helped improve the lives of his fellow Mississippians.
               As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he 
             felt the United States should always deal from a position 
             of military strength. He worked hard to see that our 
             fighting men and women, both in the active forces and the 
             National Guard and Reserve, had the equipment and training 
             they needed to do the job.
               In honor of Senator Stennis' commitment to the military, 
             Ronald Reagan announced during his presidency that the 
             Navy's next aircraft carrier would be named the U.S.S. 
             John C. Stennis. The ship is undergoing sea trials this 
             spring and summer and will be officially commissioned 
             later this year.
               Senator Stennis always called me ``his Congressman'' 
             since I represented his hometown of DeKalb in Kemper 
             County. It was a great honor to serve as his Congressman 
             for 28 years and his colleague for 23. He was a remarkable 
             man whose legacy will live on, here in Washington and in 
             his beloved Mississippi.
                                 Legislative Censure
                                                     November 12, 1954.
                           FOR CENSURE OF SENATOR MCCARTHY

               Senator John C. Stennis, Democrat of Mississippi, spoke 
             before the United States Senate on November 12, 1954, in 
             support of the resolution to censure Senator Joseph 
             McCarthy.
               Senator Stennis, a Member of the Senate's special 
             censure committee, indicted Senator McCarthy for his 
             alleged continued abuse of the Senate.
               The Senate had met in extraordinary session four days 
             before to consider the report of the Select Committee 
             appointed to study the censure charges.
               The bipartisan six-man group, under Chairman Senator 
             Arthur Watkins, Utah Republican, was set up in August. On 
             September 27, grounds for censure on two counts were 
             presented: (1) Senator McCarthy had acted contemptuously 
             toward a Senate Subcommittee investigating charges against 
             him involving his finances; (2) Senator McCarthy had used 
             ``reprehensible'' language to Brigadier General Ralph 
             Zwicker during hearings on the discharge of Major Irving 
             Peress, an Army dentist accused of pro-communism. Behind 
             these charges was the implication that his investigating 
             methods, his denunciation of all who opposed him, his 
             defiance of President Eisenhower's authority, brought into 
             disrepute the United States Senate.
               Although the debate was scheduled to begin on November 
             10, Senator McCarthy on November 9 released a long speech 
             that he proposed to give before the Senate the next day. 
             (He did not deliver it but inserted it in the Record.) 
             Statements in that ``speech'' further inflamed some 
             Senators.
               Senator Watkins opened the debate. Senator McCarthy 
             subjected him to long cross-examination. Senator Case of 
             South Dakota, also on the Select Committee, suggested that 
             if Senator McCarthy would apologize for charge number one 
             both charges might be handled without censure.
               In this atmosphere Senator Stennis spoke in ringing 
             tones and with much physical aggressiveness before the 
             crowded galleries and chamber. He made the issue not 
             militancy against communism, as Senator McCarthy argued it 
             should be, but McCarthyism--``political morality in 
             senatorial conduct.'' Senator Bricker, among others, 
             replied.
               On Monday, November 15, Senator Jenner led the debate 
             for Senator McCarthy, and Senator Ervin, of North 
             Carolina, called for censure. On November 16, Senators 
             Watkins, Welker, and Case continued the debate, and 
             Senator McCarthy entered the Naval Hospital at Bethesda, 
             MD, with a disabled elbow. The Senate adjourned from 
             November 18 until November 29.
               On Thursday, December 2, after three days of debate and 
             preliminary voting on resolutions to soften the 
             resolution, the Senate voted 67 to 22 to ``condemn'' the 
             Wisconsin Senator.
               On January 20, 1955, the Senator lost his chairmanship 
             of the Government Operations Committee and its Permanent 
             Subcommittee on Investigations as a result of the 1954 
             elections, which returned a Democratic majority to the 
             Senate. Speculation continued concerning his role as 
             aggressive fighter against communistic subversion and as 
             spokesman for Republican dissenters against Eisenhower.
               Mr. President, what is the question here? It is purely a 
             question of political morality in senatorial conduct. To 
             be more precise, the question is whether I, as a Senator, 
             approve or disapprove of these proven acts as proper 
             standards of senatorial conduct. Each Senator must make up 
             his own mind about what are the proper standards; but, as 
             Senators, let us remember that it is not as individuals 
             that we are to make up our minds in this case. We are to 
             make them up as representatives of the 161 million people 
             of the United States; we are setting standards of conduct 
             for a time-proven and time-tested institution which 
             belongs to the people--the United States Senate. . . .
               This is not merely a question of an attack upon a Member 
             of the Committee. I would not pass it by if it were. But 
             that is not all it was. As I recall, I am the Member of 
             the Committee who said that the remarks of the junior 
             Senator from Wisconsin with reference to Senator 
             Hendrickson belong in the category relating to the 
             treatment of the Committee, because the Senator from New 
             Jersey was a Member of that Committee, and the insult to 
             him was not merely an insult to an individual. It was an 
             insult to the constituted authority of the Senate, which 
             was carrying out a constitutional mission. Moreover, there 
             was an insult to a constitutional authority, the personnel 
             of which had recently been expressly approved, including 
             Senator Hendrickson, by a unanimous vote of the Senate.
               Is it a sufficient answer to say, ``Joe has done some 
             good in hunting Communists''? Shall we destroy what have 
             been considered the necessary processes in carrying out 
             one mission because a man has done good in another field, 
             on another mission? I cannot assent to such an argument.
               In view of the facts which I have related, do Senators 
             believe that the mission of the Subcommittee was 
             obstructed? Do Senators think there was an obstruction of 
             justice? Of course, they do. There is no way to avoid such 
             a conclusion. That is the final reason why I say there is 
             no escape from an affirmative charge. Such conduct must be 
             condemned. Otherwise, when challenge is made of these 
             facts, and we fail to disapprove them, we adopt them as a 
             standard. Let us be clear. Let us tell the youth of this 
             country, ``This is the way. This is the high road of which 
             the Senate approves, and upon which it likes to travel in 
             the consideration of public business.'' That is the 
             conclusion of this Member of the Committee.
               That is not all. After the report was filed and the 
             subject set for special consideration by the Senate, and 
             after the Senate had reassembled, the first words to be 
             uttered on the floor by this same source of conduct were a 
             continuation of the slush and the slime which have been 
             poured on other committees which were charged with the 
             duty of trying to look into the conduct. I have no 
             personal resentment toward the junior Senator from 
             Wisconsin for having made such statements. I feel sorry 
             for him for having done so. I refer to Senator McCarthy's 
             speech which was not delivered on the floor, but released 
             to the press and inserted in the Congressional Record on 
             the first day of the debate. It represented a continuation 
             of the same pattern, his same course of conduct. It is 
             another spot on the escutcheon of the Senate, another 
             splash and splatter.
               Every Senator must decide this case for himself. As for 
             the Senator from Mississippi, I cannot approve such slush 
             and slime as a proper standard of senatorial conduct as we 
             labor to carry on and transact the business of the people. 
             For that reason, and that reason alone, I state my 
             position here.
               I repeat that the question before the Senate is not a 
             question of fact. The facts are agreed upon. The question 
             is not, ``Do we approve or disapprove of everything that 
             was done or everything that was said by every Member of 
             the Committee at every turn throughout these 
             proceedings?'' The question is one purely of political 
             morality in senatorial conduct. To be precise, the 
             question is, ``As a Senator, and not merely as an 
             individual, do I approve or do I disapprove of these 
             proven facts as proper standards of senatorial conduct?''
               If we approve, then something big and fine will have 
             gone from this Chamber and something wrong, something 
             representing a wrong course, will have entered and gotten 
             itself accepted as a proper standard of conduct.
               As we consider that question, I hope that in some way 
             each Senator will seek and finally find divine guidance in 
             deciding what his duty is, and, from the same source, find 
             help and encouragement in performing that duty.
               Mr. President, I yield the floor.
                 

                                Memorial Services for
                 
                               John Cornelius Stennis
                                           

                                      A SERVICE

                                         in

                                    THANKSGIVING

                                         for

                                      THE LIFE

                                         of

                                    The Honorable

                               John Cornelius Stennis


                                 Pinecrest Cemetery

                                 DeKalb, Mississippi


                                   APRIL 26, 1995

                                     11:00 A.M.
                 

               The liturgy, for Burial, is characterized by joy, in the 
             certainty that ``neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor 
             principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, 
             nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in 
             all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of 
             God in Christ Jesus our Lord.''

               This joy, however, does not make human grief 
             unchristian. The very love we have for each other in 
             Christ brings deep sorrow when we are parted by death. 
             Jesus himself wept at the grave of his friend. So, while 
             we rejoice that one we love has entered into the nearer 
             presence of our Lord, we sorrow in sympathy with those who 
             mourn.
               May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.
                        The Office for the Burial of the Dead
               Trumpet Hymn--Faith of Our Fathers.
               Opening Sentences.
                               The Collect of the Day
                  O God of grace and glory, we remember before You 
                this day our brother John. We thank You for giving 
                him to us, his family and friends, to know and to 
                love as a companion on our earthly pilgrimage. In 
                Your boundless compassion, console us who mourn. 
                Give us faith to see in death the gate of eternal 
                life, so that in quiet confidence we may continue 
                our course on Earth, until, by Your call, we are 
                reunited with those who have gone before; through 
                Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

                  Most merciful God, whose wisdom is beyond our 
                understanding, deal graciously with this family in 
                their grief. Surround them with Your love, that they 
                may not be overwhelmed by their loss, but have 
                confidence in Your goodness, and strength to meet 
                the days to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
                Amen.

               A Lesson From Micah--Micah 6:8 (New English Bible).
               A Reading--John Hampton Stennis.
               A lesson From Philippians--Philippians 4:8-9.
               The Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to 
             Matthew--Matthew 25:31-40.
                                     The Homily
               The Reverend Jerry A. McBride.
                                 The Apostles' Creed
               In the assurance of eternal life given at Baptism, let 
             us proclaim our faith and say,
                  I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of 
                heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His 
                only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of 
                the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He 
                suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, 
                and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the 
                third day He rose again. He ascended into heaven, 
                and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He 
                will come again to judge the living and the dead. I 
                believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic 
                Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of 
                sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life 
                everlasting. Amen.
                                  The Lord's Prayer
               Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy Name, Thy 
             kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in 
             heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us 
             our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against 
             us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from 
             evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the 
             glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
               The Prayers
               The Committal
               The Blessing
               The Dismissal
               Trumpet Hymn--America the Beautiful

                                     The Clergy
               The Reverend Jerry A. McBride
               The Reverend Morris K. Thompson, Jr.
               The Reverend Wally Bumpas
               The Reverend Julian Stennis

                                    Pall Bearers
               Fred Harbour
               Clyde Herron
               James Spinks
               Authur Nester
               Richard Ball
               Norman McKenzie
               Robert McLaurin


                                      Trumpeter
               Tim Lavigne, Department of Music, Mississippi State 
             University
                     A Lesson From Micah (6:8 New English Bible)
                    God has told you what is good;
                    and what is it that the Lord asks of you?
                    Only to act justly, to love loyalty,
                    to walk wisely before your God.
                                          a
                           Remarks of John Hampton Stennis
               My sister, Margaret Jane, and I as we grew up in Kemper 
             County during the 1940's were required to memorize 
             passages. My mother handled the Bible; my father taught us 
             patriotic sayings and poems.
               Among the first was the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag 
             of the United States of America. Dad taught from the small 
             plaque of the flag and the pledge (two fewer stars and two 
             fewer words, but for him no different meaning) that I now 
             hold. We were in the midst of World War II. He illustrated 
             the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance by Judge Learned 
             Hands' address at ``I Am An American Day,'' entitled ``The 
             Spirit of Liberty'':

                  ``The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not 
                too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is 
                the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of 
                other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the 
                spirit which weighs their interests alongside its 
                own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers 
                that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the 
                spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two 
                thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it 
                has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; 
                that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be 
                heard and considered side by side with the 
                greatest.''

               Our Dad's patriotism did not consist of short and 
             frenzied outbursts of emotion, but in the tranquil and 
             steady dedication of a lifetime.
               My father's oldest sister, Aunt Janie, had given him a 
             copy of One Hundred and One Famous Poems With a Prose 
             Supplement. We learned almost all these poems and many 
             others, I shall share a few lines from some.

                                     be strong!
                  We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
                  We have hard work to do, and loads to lift;
                  Shun not the struggle--face it' 'tis God's gift.


                  Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
                  Life is but an empty dream!--
                  For the soul is dead that slumbers,
                  And things are not what they seem.
                  Life is real! Life is earnest!
                  And the grave is not its goal
                  Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
                  Was not spoken of the soul.

                  Let us then be up and doing,
                  With a heart for any fate;
                  Still achieving, still pursuing,
                  Learn to labor and to wait.

               ``Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard,'' Thomas Gray

                  Let not ambition mock their useful toil,
                  Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
                  Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile
                  The short and simple annals of the poor.

                  The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
                  And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
                  Awaits alike the inevitable hour:
                  The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

                  Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
                  Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
                  Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed,
                  Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre;

                  But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page,
                  Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll;
                  Chill Penury repressed their noble rage,
                  And froze the genial current of the soul.

                  The applause of list'ning senates to command,
                  The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
                  To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
                  And read their history in a nation's eyes,

                  Their lot forbade; nor circumscribed alone
                  Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined;
                  Forbade to wade thro' slaughter to a throne,
                  And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.

                       ``The Man With the Hoe,'' Edwin Markham

                  God made man in his own image,
                  in the image of God made He him.--Genesis.

                  Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
                  Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
                  The emptiness of ages in his face,
                  And on his back the burden of the world.
                  Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
                  A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,
                  Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
                  Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
                  Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
                  Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?

                  There is no shape more terrible than this--
                  More tongued with censure of the world's blind 
                greed--
                  More filled with signs and portents for the soul--
                  More packt with danger to the universe.

                  O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
                  How will the future reckon with this Man?
                  How answer his brute question in that hour
                  When whirlwinds of rebellion shake all shores?
                  How will it be with kingdoms and with kings--
                  With those who shaped him to the thing he is--
                  When this dumb Terror shall rise to judge the 
                world,
                  After the silence of the centuries?

                         ``Ulysses,'' Alfred, Lord Tennyson
                  Come, my friends,
                  `Tis not too late to seek a newer world. . . .
                  for my purpose holds
                  To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
                  Of all the western stars, until I die.
                  It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
                  It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
                  And see the great Archilles, whom we knew.
                  Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
                  We are not now that strength which in old days
                  Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
                  One equal temper of heroic hearts,
                  Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
                  To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

               From an unknown poem about a young boy who watched his 
             father go to the field behind a mule-drawn plow at sunrise 
             and return at dusk:

                  I believe my father had a pact with God
                  To guide his plow and keep his furrow straight.
                                          a
                                       Homily
                         By The Reverend Jerry Allan McBride
               When all is said and done, the most important words that 
             will be said about John Cornelius Stennis will not be that 
             he was a great statesman and United States Senator. He was 
             certainly all of that; but he was so much more. In all of 
             the ways by which we measure value in our society and our 
             world, the person and spirit of this man transcended 
             common worth. For the measure of John Stennis is found in 
             his character and dignity. To his wife, he was a devoted 
             husband and partner. To his children and grandchildren he 
             was a loving father and grandfather and a wise teacher. To 
             his friends he was a man whose friendship could always be 
             counted on. To his country he was a leader who found his 
             ``power'' only in the commitment to service. And to his 
             State he was a shining example for the very best that is 
             in all of us.
               Above all, John Stennis was a man of faith. He spent his 
             life in ministry that was just as dedicated as if he had 
             donned the clerical robes of a minister in his beloved 
             DeKalb Presbyterian Church. John Stennis believed that 
             success was ultimately measured in terms of how faithful 
             he was to the trust that the people had placed in him. And 
             by all accounts, the trust of the people was never 
             betrayed, and although he rose to the highest levels of 
             political power, he never forgot who sent him, and what 
             his mission was. I was so very touched when I walked into 
             the Senator's home. It is a true monument to the goodness 
             of John Stennis and his family. The simplicity of this 
             great man's surroundings spoke of an inner wisdom and a 
             real sense of what is ultimately important; and what is 
             not. John Stennis never forgot where he came from and 
             subsequently he never forgot who he was. The great prophet 
             of social justice in the eighth century B.C., Micah, asks 
             the question, ``What is it that the Lord asks of you?'' 
             And the answer, ``to act justly, to love loyally, and to 
             walk wisely before our God,'' describes the life of this 
             true servant of the people.
               So we gather today for all of the reasons that people 
             come together at a time like this. We gather to celebrate 
             the long and meaningful life of John Stennis, and we 
             gather to mourn. Both are a part of the cycle of creation. 
             This great man meant so much to so many, and even though I 
             did not know him personally, he knew me. And he knew all 
             of the people who farmed the land, and worked the hills, 
             and built the towns and cities of this our beloved State. 
             John Stennis knew all Mississippians, and all Americans, 
             and for that matter all people everywhere, and he left us 
             such a legacy, and an example of how to live life as a 
             public servant and a citizen of the world.
               In the cynical, egocentric, and violent world in which 
             we live, it is important that we follow the good example 
             that John Stennis has left us. He was so many things. He 
             was ever a gentleman who never forgot that integrity was 
             the only way to fully honor the trust of the people. He 
             was a man of civility who never forgot that there is a 
             right and a wrong way for men and women to disagree, and 
             then come to a solution that will benefit the common good. 
             Above all, John Cornelius Stennis was a man who, when he 
             saw injustice would have no part of it, and he called us 
             all to a higher standard of fairness and justice. He was a 
             man who believed that service meant giving to others 
             rather than gathering for himself.
               In his campaign literature for the 1947 senatorial race, 
             John Stennis stated what would be the standard for his 
             life and his public service when he wrote:

                  ``I want to go to Washington as the free and 
                unfettered servant of the great body of the people 
                who actually carry the burden of everyday life. I 
                want to plow a straight furrow right down to the end 
                of my row. This is my political religion and I have 
                lived by it too long to abandon it now. I base my 
                appeal to you on this simple creed, and with it I 
                shall rise and fall.''

               By all accounts, John Cornelius Stennis always 
             remembered the ``great body of the people who actually 
             carry the burden of everyday life.'' He remembered them 
             because he was one of them. And by all measures, it can be 
             said that John Stennis did in fact ``plow a straight 
             furrow.'' And not only did he plow it, but he watered, and 
             tended, and harvested, and then he plowed again, and 
             harvested again. John Stennis plowed the straight furrow 
             and we are better because of who he was and what he did 
             for every one of us. We will miss John Stennis but because 
             of the fruits of his life, which were justice, compassion, 
             and integrity, we will never forget the furrow he plowed.
                 

                              Condolences and Tributes
                         Christening of the Aircraft Carrier

                               John C. Stennis CVN-74

                    Newport News Shipbuilding, November 11, 1993
               Senator John C. Stennis had a sign on his desk while he 
             served in Washington. It said: ``Look Ahead.''
               That sign was a symbol of this great man's forward-
             thinking philosophy. Senator Stennis believed strongly in 
             national defense preparedness, and he fought hard for a 
             fleet of modern ships. That's one reason the Senator has 
             frequently been called the ``Father of America's Modern 
             Navy.''
               That same ``Look Ahead'' philosophy prevails here at 
             Newport News Shipbuilding. We look forward as we have 
             throughout our history to building each ship the very best 
             we can and to improving our efficiency and cost 
             effectiveness.
               Nimitz, the first ship of the class, was constructed in 
             7 years. Stennis will be delivered in less than 5 years. 
             This constant improvement is the result of countless ideas 
             and suggestions from NNS employees to do things better, 
             faster and smarter.
               Through a program we call ``Opportunity For 
             Improvement,'' employees have shown that they are not 
             satisfied with the status quo. They have demonstrated time 
             and again that they ``Look Ahead'' by getting involved and 
             by contributing their ideas on how to make a good ship 
             even better.
               The involvement of our employees in this ship's 
             construction is duplicated throughout the Shipyard--in 
             shops, on platens, in offices. That kind of effort echoes 
             our founder Collis P. Huntington's admonition to ``always 
             build good ships.'' We always will.
                                                 W.R. Phillips, Jr.,
                               President and Chief Executive Officer.
                                          a
                  John C. Stennis, Father of America's Modern Navy
               (By Mack R. Herring, Historian, John C. Stennis Space 
                                Center, Mississippi)
               U.S. Senator John C. Stennis is the senior statesman 
             honored with the christening of the nuclear aircraft 
             carrier CVN-74 in his name. A living legend in American 
             politics, John Stennis occupies a unique place of honor 
             that he earned in more than four decades of distinguished 
             service in the United States Senate.
               The courtly Senator from Mississippi, who was 
             unanimously elected President Pro Tempore of the Senate 
             for the 100th Congress, has been justly referred to as 
             ``the father of America's modern Navy'' because of his 
             years of consistent and steadfast support. He was compared 
             to a great ``ship of the line'' by former President Ronald 
             Reagan. When announcing that the aircraft carrier would be 
             named for John Stennis, President Reagan said, ``Senator, 
             when I consider your career there's a certain comparison 
             that comes to my mind. In troubled places you've brought 
             calm resolve, like one of the many great fighting ships 
             you've done so much to obtain for the Navy; serene, self 
             possessed but like a great ship of the line, possessed of 
             a high sense of purpose.''
               The high sense of purpose that President Reagan spoke of 
             was one of the many laudable descriptions of character 
             earned by Senator Stennis. The word ``statesman'' is the 
             term that most associate with this great American, who 
             began his career as a farmer in the gentle hills of Kemper 
             County, Mississippi. From his roots there, he adopted a 
             simple motto early in his political career that became his 
             creed and the foundation for his steadfast devotion to 
             honesty and hard work in every task he undertook: ``I will 
             plow a straight furrow right down to the end of the row.''
               The Presidents he served with, from Truman to Reagan, 
             recognized his honesty and integrity and all turned to him 
             for help and counsel during difficult times. Every 
             President knew of Senator Stennis' high standing with his 
             colleagues, and recognized the influence he carried within 
             the Senate. He always kept his relationships with the 
             Presidents in what he believed to be their proper 
             perspective. When asked how many Presidents he served 
             ``under,'' Stennis replied, ``I did not serve under any 
             President. I served with eight Presidents.''
               As Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee 
             (1969-1980), Senator Stennis stood firm for U.S. military 
             superiority. He fought and won many battles on the floor 
             of the Senate on behalf of the American military men and 
             women. A strong Navy, second to none in the world, was 
             always at the top of John Stennis' agenda.
               ``The Senator recognized that America is an `island 
             nation' and had to have a Navy that was always capable of 
             defending its shores and carrying the message of peace 
             through strength throughout the world,'' said Rex 
             Buffington, executive director at the John C. Stennis 
             Center for Public Service. ``Senator Stennis felt the very 
             presence of the carriers presented a formidable force to 
             reckon with and were a stabilizing influence anywhere they 
             sailed,'' Buffington recalls.
               Senator Stennis' philosophy as relating to the Navy was 
             a theme at the keel laying ceremony for the nuclear-
             powered cruiser USS Mississippi, at Newport News 
             Shipbuilding, in February 1975. His speech recounted the 
             Navy's strength:
               ``From my vantage point for getting the full facts and 
             knowing the needs, I know that a strong and powerful 
             Navy--a Navy second to none--is vital and essential to the 
             Nation's security.
               ``Such a Navy is needed to go into battle if war should 
             be forced upon us. Of equal importance, such a Navy is 
             needed in time of peace to provide the evident muscle and 
             sinew to enforce our foreign policy and, if necessary, to 
             call the bluff of a would-be-aggressor.''
               Frank Sullivan, former staff director for the Senate 
             Appropriations Committee, said the very ship that is 
             christened in Stennis' name would not have become a 
             reality without the Senator's arduous support. ``In 
             fact,'' Sullivan said, ``Senator Stennis was a leader in 
             obtaining the last four carriers for the Navy.''
               In 1979, Senator Stennis, in a statement of his staunch 
             support of the nuclear carrier, said, ``It carries 
             everything and goes full strength and is ready to fight or 
             go into action within minutes after it arrives at its 
             destination. As I say, they get there ready to go.
               ``There is nothing that compares with it when it comes 
             to deterrence, nothing this side of all-out nuclear war.''
               Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia, present Chairman of the 
             Senate Armed Services Committee, said of Senator Stennis, 
             ``His career in the Senate and particularly his leadership 
             of the Armed Services Committee were an inspiration to me 
             when I decided to run for the United States Senate. As 
             chairman, he set a standard that all of his successors 
             strive to meet. For me, no higher honor has come my way 
             than serving in the United States Senate with this soaring 
             eagle.''
               President Reagan, who depended on Senator Stennis to be 
             his ``stalwart'' for establishing a strong national 
             defense in the waning years of the Cold War, said, 
             ``Senator Stennis led some of the most crucial legislative 
             battles in history on behalf of our national defense.''
               Another President, Richard Nixon, said, ``I recall 
             vividly a telephone conversation I had as President with 
             John Stennis. I thanked him for the indispensable role he 
             had played in helping us to get a defense appropriation 
             bill through the Senate. And he replied, `Thank you, Mr. 
             President, but to be frank, I didn't do it for you. I did 
             it for my country.' ''
               On Armed Services, Stennis always tried to give 
             Presidents the benefit of the doubt. On balance, he was a 
             friend of the Pentagon over the years, one inclined to 
             trust its leadership when the value of a particular 
             weapons system was questioned. But he was never willing to 
             sign a blank check for defense spending requests, and he 
             demanded careful and detailed scrutiny of every proposed 
             outlay. ``I was raised to believe that waste was a sin,'' 
             he said. ``To support military readiness, a Senator does 
             not have to be a wastrel,'' he observed on another 
             occasion.
               Senator J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana said that 
             ``only a handful'' in the history of the country have 
             contributed as much to the national defense as Senator 
             Stennis.
               His influence and power spanned the 41 years he served 
             in the Senate.
               The Washington Star wrote in 1975, ``Stennis is `Mr. 
             Integrity,' the embodiment of honor and fairness.''
               In 1982, the Washington Post wrote, ``No one in the 
             Senate questions Stennis' integrity or contribution to 
             that body. The possessor of a tremendous booming voice, a 
             Phi Beta Kappa key, and a universal reputation for fair-
             mindedness which has long been one of his dominating 
             features, he is a Senator's Senator, an advisor to 
             Presidents, a man of enormous power and influence.''
               Three years later, the New York Times said, ``He is the 
             undisputed patriarch of the Senate, a teacher to younger 
             Members, and conscience for the entire institution. He 
             seldom makes national headlines but he wields considerable 
             influence in the Senate itself and that influence came 
             from the quality of his personal judgment.''
               George Will, in a syndicated column in 1986, compared 
             the Senator's long and steady career to the ``Big River'' 
             that runs along the border of his home state of 
             Mississippi. Will wrote, ``Early in many a morning, when 
             John Stennis arrives at work, the United States Capitol is 
             as quiet as vespers. The only voices heard have the soft 
             sound of ashes falling upon ashes. Soon the place is 
             noisy. He never has been, never will be. He is a Senator 
             of the old school, the last of that school of no-waste 
             motion and few public flourishes.
               ``His talk is lightly laced with regional and archaic 
             phrases as when, speaking of a friend from distant youth, 
             he says, `He lived over near the Big River.' There is a 
             faint, sweet echo of vanished America in that almost 
             reverent reference to a dominating geographic fact.
               ``All flesh is as grass, but some flesh, like some 
             grass, is especially durable. Few people have ever endured 
             in Washington longer than the Senator from Mississippi. 
             May his career flow on, like the Big River.''
               Senator George Mitchell of Maine, Senate Majority 
             Leader, said: ``Some men spend a lifetime striving to 
             achieve and maintain respect. Senator Stennis has lived 
             such a life and set an example for all of us to follow.''
               Stennis' manners are as polished as his ethics. He once 
             interrupted an important Senate hearing in order to guide 
             a late-arriving woman spectator to a seat. And a dirt-
             farmer constituent who visited his Senate office received 
             as much courtesy as a Secretary of Defense.
               Politically and publicly, Senator Stennis projected a 
             character with pride, self-respect, extreme honesty, 
             unquestionable integrity and sincerity. Privately, Stennis 
             is the same man. He claims his ``image'' is due entirely 
             to his strict following of what he calls his personal code 
             developed during his upbringing and formative years in 
             Kemper County, Mississippi.
               John Stennis was born August 3, 1901, in the Kipling 
             community, about eight miles south of DeKalb. His parents 
             were Hampton Howell and Cornelia (Adams) Stennis. He came 
             from a long line of country doctors, though his father was 
             a farmer and merchant in DeKalb. His father taught him 
             responsibility and hard work at an early age, tenets he 
             would incorporate into his personal code and practice in 
             every aspect of his life. He had three older sisters who 
             practiced their ``school teaching'' on him, giving young 
             John a head start with special tutoring in manners as well 
             as the books. His mother carefully trained him to always 
             ``do his best and look his best.''
               It was this type of family background and preparation 
             that helped mold the 18-year-old farm boy who stepped off 
             the train at Mississippi A&M (later to become Mississippi 
             State University) in the fall of 1919. He quickly began to 
             form friendships and earn confidence that would give him 
             opportunities for service unsurpassed by anyone in 
             Mississippi history. By the time he was graduated in 1923, 
             he was showing signs of the leadership that would become 
             legend.
               Senator Stennis put great stock in education or 
             ``training.'' But he also knew that education was not the 
             only preparation one needed. He once told an interviewer 
             that his mother and father missed a college education 
             because of ``the war,'' meaning the Civil War. ``Down 
             there for the last hundred years,'' Stennis said, ``people 
             lacked for money and lacked for worldly things. But they 
             got plenty of things money can't buy--like good neighbors, 
             good friends, and the community spirit of sharing with the 
             other fellow.''
               After graduation from Mississippi State University, 
             Stennis went on to the University of Virginia in 1924 and 
             convinced the dean of the law school to accept him without 
             ever filing an application. His education there was 
             interrupted, however, when his father died and he returned 
             to the family farm.
               During this interruption of his studies at Virginia, 
             Stennis' friends and neighbors urged him to seek an open 
             seat in the Mississippi House of Representatives. He was 
             elected and took the oath of office in January 1928, 
             beginning a career in public service that would span more 
             than 60 years without a break. Political historians 
             believe that to be a record for this country.
               State Representative Stennis went back to the University 
             of Virginia in the fall of 1928 to finish law school. He 
             continued to excel, actually memorizing the entire United 
             States Constitution while compiling an academic record 
             which earned him the Phi Beta Kappa key.
               On Christmas Eve of the following year he married Coy 
             Hines, a native of New Albany, Mississippi, who was 
             serving at the time as the Kemper County home 
             demonstration agent. They built and moved into a white 
             frame house just south of DeKalb, which Stennis still 
             calls home.
               In 1932, John Stennis was elected district prosecuting 
             attorney. People throughout the district came to know 
             Stennis as a hard-working prosecutor who stood for what 
             was right and unyielding in the face of adversity. It was 
             during these years in DeKalb that the Stennis children 
             were born: John Hampton, March 2, 1935; and Margaret Jane, 
             November 20, 1937.
               Stennis was appointed to fill the seat of a circuit 
             judge when a vacancy occurred due to a death in 1937. For 
             the next 10 years, Judge Stennis gained the respect of all 
             and his reputation spread far beyond his district.
               When U.S. Senator Theodore G. Bilbo died in office in 
             1947, Judge Stennis entered the race for his seat. It was 
             a grass roots campaign in which Stennis promised to ``plow 
             a straight furrow right down to the end of my row.'' He 
             was elected against formidable opposition and began to 
             build on a national reputation as the junior Senator from 
             Mississippi. His reputation for integrity spread quickly 
             among his colleagues, who learned that they could depend 
             on what John Stennis said.
               He demonstrated courage along with his convictions. As 
             he earned the respect of the giants of the Senate, he 
             gained key committee assignments which gave him the 
             opportunity to be a major participant in decisions of 
             vital importance to the Nation as well as his home state 
             of Mississippi.
               Time and again during his 41 years of service, the 
             Senate turned to Senator Stennis for guidance when its 
             Members or its customs were under suspicion, and when an 
             impartial and fair assessment seemed vital. From the 
             McCarthy era to Watergate, Stennis applied judicial skills 
             and temperament he acquired during his 10 years on the 
             bench in Mississippi.
               Senator Stennis' unselfish achievements during his long 
             years of hard work did not come without great adversity. 
             In 1973 he was shot twice during a holdup attempt in his 
             front yard in northwest Washington. Although doctors 
             didn't at first give much hope of Senator Stennis living, 
             then later of ever walking again, he surprised practically 
             everyone and recovered almost completely. He said his 
             chief thought during those doubtful days was, ``Would I be 
             useful?'' Senator Stennis' dedication and commitment to 
             duty would not allow him to stop or slow down.
               In 1983, his wife, affectionately known as ``Miss Coy,'' 
             died and he underwent surgery for repair of a weakened 
             wall of the aorta. On December 1, 1984, his left leg was 
             amputated to remove a cancerous tumor. Again Stennis came 
             back and continued to serve his country, setting a pace 
             for Senators many years younger to follow.
               John Stennis retired from the Senate in 1988 and 
             returned home to teach at Mississippi State University. He 
             now resides in Madison, Mississippi.
               In Washington, Senator Stennis had a sign on his desk 
             that represented a part of his philosophy. It simply read: 
             ``Look Ahead.'' His own words and deeds articulated this 
             personal conviction as it applied to the United States 
             Navy:
               ``Our Navy has an unchanging mission. Many of our 
             resources, our allies and our enemies as well, lie 
             overseas. In most of our wars in the last 175 years, 
             including the Revolutionary War, this country would not 
             have been victorious without superior Navy power being on 
             its side.
               ``This mission to maintain decisive naval power for our 
             global interests will remain as imperative for the future 
             as the past. Our global interests and overseas dependence 
             grows, not lessens, with each passing year.
               ``We must always remember that when the chips are down 
             and shots are fired, it will be the modern-day naval 
             patriots who will risk their lives, man the ships and fire 
             the guns.''
               John Stennis' contributions to our Navy will last for 
             decades to come. And as this great ship plies the oceans 
             of the world to ensure the pace, it will be carrying the 
             name of a man who did, indeed, ``Look Ahead'' for the 
             future's sake of his country as he plows a straight furrow 
             right down to the end of his row.
                                       PROGRAM

                                   National Anthem
               United States Naval Academy Band.

                                     Invocation
               CDR Robert J. Phillips, CHC, USN, Prospective Chaplain, 
             John C. Stennis (CVN-74).

                  Remarks and Introduction of Distinguished Guests
               W.R. (Pat) Phillips, Jr., President and Chief Executive 
             Officer, Newport News Shipbuilding.

                                       Remarks
               Dana G. Mead, President and Chief Operating Officer, 
             Tenneco, Inc.
               The Honorable Charles S. Robb, United States Senator, 
             Virginia.
               The Honorable Thad Cochran, United States Senator, 
             Mississippi.
               The Honorable John W. Warner, United States Senator, 
             Virginia.

                    Remarks and Introduction of Principal Speaker
               The Honorable John H. Dalton, Secretary of the Navy.

                                  Principal Address
               The Honorable Al Gore, Vice President, United States of 
             America.

                     Introduction of Sponsor and Matron of Honor
               Mr. Phillips.

                       Christening of John C. Stennis (CVN-74)
               Mrs. Margaret Stennis Womble, Sponsor.
               Mrs. Martha A. Stennis, Matron of Honor.

                                   Closing Remarks
               Mr. Phillips.
                                   John C. Stennis

                               Celebration of a Legend

                                            Thursday, June 23, 1988,
                           Sheraton Washington Hotel, Washington, DC.

               When John Stennis stepped off the train on the campus of 
             Mississippi A&M in the fall of 1919, it would have been 
             difficult to distinguish him from any other 18-year-old 
             farm boy starting out on a new adventure. He was well-
             prepared, thanks to the special tutoring provided by his 
             three older sisters who practiced their school-teaching on 
             him. His father, Howell Stennis, taught him responsibility 
             and hard work early-on, making young John feel that even 
             at a very young age his efforts were essential to the 
             operation of the family farm. And his mother, Cornelia 
             Adams Stennis, had trained each of the six Stennis 
             children to do their best and look their best.
               No one on campus that rainy September morning could have 
             recognized that young John Stennis was bound for 
             greatness. But he was beginning even then to form 
             friendships and earn confidence that would give him 
             opportunities for service unsurpassed by anyone in 
             Mississippi history. As his popularity on campus grew, his 
             interest in government and political science grew as well. 
             By the time he graduated in 1923 from what would later 
             become Mississippi State University, he was beginning to 
             show signs of the leadership that would become legend.
               A major test of personal fortitude and stamina awaited 
             young Stennis at the University of Virginia Law School, 
             where he found himself alone and severely challenged by 
             demanding law books and professors. He experienced self-
             doubt during the first year, then determined that he would 
             prevail, despite the effort required. He excelled, 
             actually memorizing the entire United States Constitution 
             while compiling an academic record that earned him the Phi 
             Beta Kappa key.
               His final year in law school was interrupted by the 
             necessity of going home to Kemper County to help his 
             family. It was during this unexpected interlude in his 
             legal studies that John Stennis was approached by friends 
             and neighbors who urged him to seek an open seat in the 
             Mississippi House of Representatives. He was elected and 
             took the oath of office in January 1928, beginning a 
             career in public service that would span more than sixty 
             years without a single break.
               State Representative Stennis went back to the University 
             of Virginia in the fall of 1928 to complete law school, 
             then returned to DeKalb to open his law practice in a 
             small building across from the courthouse. On Christmas 
             Eve of the following year he married Coy Hines of New 
             Albany, the Kemper County home demonstration agent. Soon 
             they built and moved into the white frame house just south 
             of town which John Stennis still calls home.
               By the time the 1932 election rolled around, the Great 
             Depression had hit hard. John Stennis reasoned that his 
             best opportunity might lie in seeking the office of 
             district prosecuting attorney. It might be the only way to 
             use his hard-earned law degree, since virtually no one 
             could afford to pay a lawyer under the economic hardships 
             imposed by the Depression.
               He won election in the six-county district and went to 
             work with vigor. The hours were long and hard, but the 
             rewards were great. People throughout the district came to 
             know John Stennis as a hard working prosecutor who stood 
             for what was right and would not yield in the face of 
             adversity.
               When a death resulted in a vacancy in the circuit 
             judge's seat, many in the district called for appointment 
             of Prosecuting Attorney Stennis to the post. Governor Hugh 
             White thought Stennis might be too young for such 
             responsibility at age 37, but the leaders of the local 
             communities throughout the district insisted, and John 
             Stennis became the youngest circuit judge ever appointed.
               Over the next ten years Judge Stennis became legend in 
             the courthouses of the counties in which he served. He was 
             tough, but he was fair. He earned the respect of all, and 
             his reputation spread well beyond the area as lawyers 
             talked about his knowledge of the law and his skill in 
             handling courtroom situations. Jurors were attracted to 
             his warmth and dignity, and people in communities 
             throughout the district began developing a loyalty for 
             this man who demonstrated a real interest and concern for 
             people.
               It did not take him long to decide to run for the United 
             States Senate when Theodore G. Bilbo died in office in 
             1947. He entered the race quickly and friends from 
             throughout the state went to work immediately seeking 
             support for their candidate, John Stennis. Fellow alumni 
             from Mississippi State were especially active in the grass 
             roots campaign in which Judge Stennis promised ``to plow a 
             straight furrow, right down to the end of my row.''
               Judge Stennis was the kind of man people believed in, 
             placed confidence in, developed a loyalty to. His 
             supporters did more than just go to the polls to vote for 
             him; they actively worked for his election among their 
             family and friends. It was widespread activity on the part 
             of many that made the difference in his first election to 
             the Senate. It was their strong commitment that gave him 
             the edge over four opponents, including two sitting 
             Congressmen. All of his opponents appeared better known 
             and better financed at the beginning of the campaign.
               Those diverse supporters and friends from throughout the 
             state enabled John Stennis to come to the Senate as a true 
             representative of all the people, free from ties to 
             special interest. He carefully maintained his relationship 
             with the common folk, resisting formation of any type of 
             political organization of his own that might in some way 
             be exclusive. Mississippians of all walks of life 
             considered Stennis their friend and their representative 
             in Congress, and their loyalty and appreciation for him 
             grew as he developed into a senator's Senator.
               When he came to the Senate in 1947, the country was at 
             the beginning of an era of growth and development that 
             would propel the United States to world leadership in 
             virtually every area. Opportunities abounded, and Stennis 
             set out to bring jobs and development to Mississippi. No 
             one in the history of the State has ever brought so many 
             jobs and opportunities to the people of Mississippi. It is 
             virtually impossible to track the vast number of jobs 
             created through military installations he attracted to 
             Mississippi, through economic development projects he 
             supported, and the industry he helped bring to the state. 
             His very first legislative initiative in the Senate was 
             creation of a federal program to help pave rural roads, an 
             attempt to get the farmers out of the mud. He continually 
             worked for programs that would enhance educational 
             opportunities for young people and give local communities 
             the assistance they need to attract growth and 
             development.
               But John Stennis proved himself to be an exceptional 
             Senator on the national level as well. Senate greats, such 
             as the late Senator Richard Russell of Georgia, recognized 
             his bright mind and solid judgment soon after he arrived 
             in Washington. They recognized him as a worker who was 
             willing to give his all for a worthy cause. As he earned 
             the respect of the powers in the Senate, he also gained 
             key committee assignment which allowed him an opportunity 
             to participate directly in decisions of vital importance 
             to Mississippi and the Nation.
               His reputation for integrity spread quickly among his 
             colleagues who learned that they could depend on what John 
             Stennis said. He had courage along with his convictions. 
             He was the first Democrat to take the Senate floor to call 
             for censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy at a politically 
             sensitive period in the Nation's history. He was a natural 
             selection as the first chairman of the Senate Ethics 
             Committee.
               The Presidents he served with, from Truman to Reagan, 
             also recognized his honesty and integrity, and all turned 
             to him for help and counsel during difficult times. Every 
             President knew Senator Stennis' standing with his 
             colleagues, and recognized the influence he carried within 
             the Senate.
               As Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, 
             Senator Stennis stood firm for a military second to none. 
             He fought and won many battles on the floor of the Senate 
             in behalf of the American military men and women. As 
             Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he 
             insisted on fairness and foresight in determining the 
             Nation's spending priorities. He has pushed for strict 
             accountability in all programs of the government, 
             reminding colleagues and administrators that they must 
             work to make the taxpayer's dollar go further.
               When he was elected President Pro Tempore of the United 
             States by unanimous vote at the opening of the 100th 
             Congress, John Stennis had served in the Senate over 40 
             years, second only to the late Senator Carl Hayden of 
             Arizona who served 41 years, 10 months and 12 days. But 
             his service is marked by more than the passage of time. 
             And even though his legislative accomplishments are great, 
             his service to this country cannot be adequately 
             understood by reading the Congressional Record.
               The service of Senator Stennis is marked by dignity and 
             decency and duty. Obstacles that would have crushed a 
             weaker man have only served to strengthen this great 
             American statesman who has set an example of what a public 
             servant should be for all who aspire to make a difference.
               It is a legend we celebrate, and a living legend at 
             that. From his humble beginnings as a Mississippi farm boy 
             to a nationally recognized leader, Senator Stennis has 
             maintained an enthusiasm for life that is a challenge to 
             all who daily observe him in action. He holds firmly to 
             his ``look ahead'' philosophy.
               As great as his contributions have been to Mississippi 
             and the Nation thus far, we can look forward to even more 
             significant work from this humble man whose commitment to 
             the people has never wavered. His legacy will continue to 
             inspire future generations of boys and girls--many at 
             meager starting points--who set out to make life better 
             for the people around them.
                       John C. Stennis Institute of Government
               The John C. Stennis Institute of Government was 
             established at Mississippi State University on July 1, 
             1977. Its purpose is to bring about more effective 
             government through research, training and service, and to 
             promote greater citizen involvement in the political 
             process. The Institute was created and its programs are 
             supported largely through an endowment created by friends 
             and admirers of Senator Stennis.
               The Institute functions as an autonomous unit within the 
             university's Department of Political Science. It provides 
             an outreach mechanism for faculty members in political 
             science and other fields. The holder of the John C. 
             Stennis Chair in Political Science directs the Institute.
               The Institute's mission reflects the expressed wishes of 
             Senator Stennis to bring greater efficiency and 
             effectiveness to state and local government and to help 
             young people become informed participants in American 
             democracy. A variety of educational, research and service 
             activities have been conducted by the Institute or with 
             its support.
               The Institute provides technical assistance to local 
             governments, including counties implementing the unit 
             system of government, rural communities starting fire 
             departments and cities working to convert to the strong-
             mayor form of government.
               John C. Stennis Scholarships in political science have 
             been awarded to dozens of Mississippi State students with 
             excellent potential as leaders in public affairs.
               The Institute creates classroom teaching materials on 
             government and provides them to Mississippi schools along 
             with services to teachers of government and civics. The 
             Institute also conducts the annual Robert Taft Institute 
             for Teachers held each summer in the state capital and 
             helps sponsor the United Nations Model Security Council 
             for high school and college students held at Mississippi 
             State.
               The dramatic changes taking place in Mississippi 
             government and education provide the John C. Stennis 
             Institute of Government with new opportunities during its 
             second decade. Plans call for expanded technical 
             assistance to state agencies and local governments and 
             additional applied research. Executive seminars for local 
             and state officials and a Certified Public Manager Program 
             also have been proposed.
               Through these and other programs reaching thousands of 
             individuals, the Stennis Institute will continue to strive 
             for good government and widespread, informed citizen 
             participation.
                                   Dinner Chairmen
             Senator J. Bennett Johnston
             Senator Sam Nunn
             Senator Ted Stevens
             Senator John Warner
                            Mississippi State University
               Donald W. Zacharias, President
                    Chairmen, Executive Committee, Washington, DC
             Gray Armistead
             K.K. Bigelow
             Powell ``Skip'' Walton
                     Chairmen, Executive Committee, Mississippi
             Robert M. Hearin
             Warren A. Hood
                 
                             Senator John C. Stennis Day

                                   August 3, 1985
               As President of the Kemper County Chamber of Commerce, 
             we welcome you to the Senator John C. Stennis Day.
               We feel like this day is a special day and we want 
             Senator John C. Stennis to know that we appreciate what he 
             has done and is still doing for our state and country. We 
             feel like Senator Stennis is most deserving of the 
             recognition that he will receive on this day.
               We hope you enjoy the activities that have been 
             scheduled and we appreciate your taking part in this 
             special day for Senator John C. Stennis.
                  Sincerely,
                                                   Arthur M. Nester,
                                                           President.
                                          a
                 John C. Stennis, United States Senator, Mississippi
               Senator John C. Stennis, the Dean of the United States 
             Senate, holds key positions of leadership on two of the 
             most powerful Senate committees, Appropriations and Armed 
             Services. As the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations 
             Committee, Senator Stennis is involved in helping to 
             determine funding for every branch and program of 
             government. By virtue of his leadership positions on the 
             committee, he is ex-officio member of every Appropriations 
             Subcommittee. As the senior member of the Armed Services 
             Committee, Senator Stennis is integrally involved in 
             determining the future scope of our national defense 
             policy.
               The Senator's influence extends far beyond the committee 
             assignments he has earned. Because of his reputation as a 
             man of sound judgment and outstanding character, his 
             colleagues look to him for direction. When the Senate 
             Ethics Committee was formed, John Stennis was the obvious 
             choice as chairman. He drafted the first code of ethics 
             adopted by the Senate. His integrity has earned Senator 
             Stennis the respect of leaders throughout the world. His 
             good reputation coupled with his tremendous energy makes 
             him one of the most effective members to ever serve in the 
             United States Senate.
               President Eisenhower singled John Stennis out as a man 
             who possessed the qualities which would make him a good 
             president. Others have pointed to his sound judgment and 
             fine legal mind as characteristics which would be valuable 
             to the Supreme Court of the United States. Senator Stennis 
             has never encouraged such recommendations. Instead he has 
             always made it clear that it was his desire to continue to 
             serve as Mississippi's ``battling lawyer'' in Washington.
               The Senator's determined efforts have reaped many 
             rewards for Mississippians. No other man has brought so 
             many jobs to the state. Projects he supports greatly 
             enhance the Mississippi economy. The Tennessee-Tombigbee 
             Waterway under construction in Northeast Mississippi and 
             the Gulf Coast complex containing the National Space 
             Testing Laboratory, the Navy Oceanography Center and the 
             Army Ammunition Plant are examples of his efforts at 
             opposite ends of the state.
               Mississippi military installations including Keesler Air 
             Force Base in Biloxi, the Seabee Base in Gulfport, the 
             Meridian Naval Air Station, Columbus Air Force Base and 
             Camp Shelby in Forrest County have greatly benefited from 
             the special interest Senator Stennis gives national 
             defense.
               Likewise, many ports, harbors and flood control projects 
             have benefited from his keen interest in development of 
             resources in Mississippi.
               His efforts in economic development for Mississippi have 
             been equally effective. Just recently Senator Stennis was 
             credited with having saved the Industrial Development Bond 
             program which was severely threatened on the floor of the 
             Senate.
               Senator Stennis' strong support of farm and forestry 
             improvement programs and agricultural research has helped 
             to bring about legislation which has reaped great economic 
             benefits for Mississippi and the Nation.
               The Senator is recognized through the Nation as a leader 
             in the movement to balance the federal budget. His voice 
             in the Senate is always sound and strong when difficult 
             decisions must be made for the good of the nation. His 
             colleagues from every state in the Union recognize Senator 
             Stennis as a true national statesman who always puts the 
             best interest of the nation ahead of partisan politics.
               The influence Senator Stennis wields within the Senate 
             is clear and evident. Opposing Senators seeking to draw 
             jobs away from Mississippi to their states constantly 
             blame their failure on the clout John Stennis carries in 
             the Senate.
               The recent outcome of key votes in the Senate 
             demonstrates that the Senator's effectiveness is 
             undiminished by Republican control. Should the Democrats 
             regain control of the Senate, Senator Stennis would be in 
             line to become President Pro Tempore and chairman of the 
             Appropriations or Armed Services Committees.
                                       PROGRAM

               Ribbon Cutting Cermonies 10 a.m.--Industrial Park.

                   Clois Cheatham, President Development Authority

               Open House at Kemper Newton Regional Library 1-5 p.m.

               Open House at Senator Stennis Office 1-5 p.m.

               Parade--2 p.m.

               Entertainment 3-5 p.m.--Courthouse Square.

              MJC Cloggers, Martha Jean Dudley, Kemper County Western 
                                        Band
                   U.S. Navy Band, Kemper County Community Chorus

               Main Event 5:30 p.m.--Courthouse Square.

               Welcome--Mayor F.D. Harbour.

               Invocation--Reverend David Trimmier.

               National Anthem--Elizabeth Johnson.

               Introduction of Master of Ceremonies--Mayor F.D. 
             Harbour.

               Master of Ceremonies--J.P. Coleman.

               Speakers Colleagues and Friends.
               Tribute to Senator Stennis--Paul Ott.

                                   Senator Stennis
               Presentation to Senator Stennis-- J.P. Coleman.

               God Bless America--Nikki Watson.

               Entertainment Courthouse Square.

                 Kemper County Community Choir, Queen City Cloggers
                                          United States Senate,
                                                     Washington, DC,
                                                       August 3, 1985

               Dear John:
               This Senator, whose service with you has been relatively 
             brief, feels both honored and privileged to be your 
             colleague. I'm delighted to join with all of your friends 
             in Mississippi in honoring you today.
               You are, of course, a major link in our bridge from the 
             past to the future, a part of the distinguished history of 
             the United States Senate. From you, all of my 
             contemporaries and I have learned a great deal about the 
             traditions of the Senate and of the United States itself.
               More important, however, is the example which you set 
             for your more junior colleagues. For me, and for many 
             others, you have provided a model of the civility, the 
             thoughtfulness, the broad-mindedness and the wisdom to 
             which every Senator should aspire. I wish you many more 
             years of magnificent service.
                  Sincerely,
                                                       Slade Gorton.
                                          a
                          Senator Stennis As Others See Him
               It would not be possible without the great cooperation 
             and good counsel and very constructive contributions made 
             by the man whom I regard as my mentor, Senator Stennis. 
             (Senator John Tower, Republican, Texas, May 14, 1982, 
             after Senate passage of the 1982 Defense Authorization 
             Bill.)

               Mr. President, I wish to join the Senator from Texas, 
             the chairman of the committee, in paying my respects to a 
             man who, perhaps, has no peer in terms of admiration by 
             the Senate as a whole. For many of us he has been not only 
             a guiding light for us in the Chamber, but for me 
             personally, and without his good counsel and participation 
             in this complex bill, I am sure we would not have been 
             able to reach final passage even at this early hour on the 
             morning of May 14, and I wish to express my appreciation 
             to the Senator from Mississippi. (Senator Howard Baker, 
             Republican, Tennessee, May 14, 1982, after Senate passage 
             of the 1982 Defense Authorization Bill.)

               The main reason John Stennis is so effective is not 
             because of his seniority, but because of his integrity and 
             his statesmanship. (Senator Sam Nunn, Democrat, Georgia.)

               He is a man who looks like a Senator, talks like a 
             Senator, acts like a Senator, and who is a Senator's 
             Senator, in my judgment. He is well-beloved by all members 
             of this Senate on both sides of the aisle. He is highly 
             respected in and out of the Senate. (Senator Robert Byrd, 
             Democrat, West Virginia.)

               No one in the Senate questions Stennis' integrity or 
             contribution to the body. The possessor of a tremendous 
             booming voice, a Phi Beta Kappa key and a universal 
             reputation for fairmindedness, he has long been one of its 
             dominating figures--a Senator's Senator, an adviser to 
             Presidents, a man of enormous power and influence. (The 
             Washington Post, September 28, 1982.)

               Stennis, in a grueling seven-day debate in which he was 
             sometimes on his feet for hours at a time had just 
             shepherded to passage the $21.9 billion military 
             procurement bill. With his tremendous booming voice, his 
             restless leonine pacing, his uncanny capacity to capture 
             the attention of every member of the Senate whenever he 
             rises to speak in his rich Mississippi drawl, Stennis 
             dominated the debate and won all the major votes. (Roger 
             Mudd, NBC Newsman.)

               We have in this body a number of Republican Senators and 
             a number of Democratic Senators. And then we have some 
             United States Senators. John Stennis is a United States 
             Senator. He has always done what he thought was best for 
             his country.
               If his code of conduct were followed by all politicians 
             and by all public officials today, we would not have the 
             shaken confidence of the people in the institutions of 
             government. (Senator Lloyd Bentsen, Democrat, Texas.)

               John Stennis' dedication to this country goes far beyond 
             most people who ever served here in the entire history of 
             the country. I really can't imagine the United States 
             Senate without John Stennis. (Senator Russell Long, 
             Democrat, Louisiana.)
                                     The Senator

                      THE ALUMNUS, MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY
                                     Summer 1973
               Mr. Fatherree. Mr. Chairman, Senator and Mrs. Stennis, 
             President Giles, distinguished guests, ladies and 
             gentleman.
               I'm here this morning for the purpose of making a 
             presentation in behalf of our Class. In February, 1972, 
             Senator Stennis, the Life Secretary of the Class, and I 
             had occasion to discuss the plans for the 50th anniversary 
             of our graduation, which we proudly celebrate here this 
             weekend. At that time he requested that I take the 
             responsibility of working with officials of the University 
             and the Alumni staff in arranging the details of the 
             program. This I gladly agreed to do, and have had the 
             wholehearted cooperation and support of everyone. For this 
             I am most grateful.
               As I thought about the occasion, it occurred to me that 
             we should do something very special in honor of our life 
             secretary, who is without a doubt the most distinguished 
             member of our Class--yes the most distinguished graduate 
             of this fine institution. I talked this over with several 
             members of the class as well as with some officials of the 
             University. All were in agreement that it was an excellent 
             idea. The question then was: What could be done? We 
             considered several possibilities, every one of which would 
             supplement the generous gift of his papers to the 
             University, where a suite of rooms has been set aside in 
             the Library and designated ``The Stennis Suite.'' An 
             ancient Bible might have been available, or a shelf of 
             good books on political science. Either would have been 
             appropriate. Finally, we came up with the idea of 
             commissioning a good artist to do a painting of the 
             Senator, to be hung in the Stennis Suite in the Library. 
             This was agreed upon, a contract was made with an artist, 
             and an estimate of the cost received. A decision was then 
             made to proceed with the plan.
               We are pleased that that artist is in our midst today, 
             and if she will stand, I would like for us to recognize 
             here, Mrs. Clara Fay West of Columbus, Mississippi. Will 
             Mrs. West please stand? I can't see from up here. I hope 
             she's in the audience.
               At any rate, we were then faced with the matter of 
             raising the money and arranging for a sitting without 
             divulging our plans to the Senator. I assumed the 
             responsibility of raising the money from members of the 
             Class, and the Senator was asked to sit for a painting 
             which was to be presented, so he was told, by an anonymous 
             donor. The plan worked perfectly. It was necessary to send 
             only a few letters before the money was in hand, and 
             Senator Stennis readily agreed to sit for the artist, 
             unaware of our plans.
               With this brief background, I now come to formally 
             present and unveil a painting of United States Senator 
             John Cornelius Stennis, a member of the Class of 1923, and 
             the junior United States Senator from Mississippi since 
             1947, a period of more than a quarter of a century. 
             Mississippi has had no greater, no more dedicated 
             statesman in her long and proud history. In presenting 
             this painting, I feel that his life and record of public 
             service speak for themselves, and are too well known for 
             me to list his many accomplishments and honors, to say 
             nothing of the well deserved esteem which he has gained 
             nationally, and the credit he has brought to his alma 
             mater, his State and his Nation. He is truly a man among 
             men, one who can walk with those in highest places--
             legislators, judges, generals, admirals, yes, even with 
             Presidents, with the humble, share their problems, 
             concerns and yearnings--truly, the marks of a great man, 
             judged by any standards. Occupying positions of power, he 
             uses such power with intelligence and care, to the 
             interest of building a better world. A man of tremendous 
             energy, understanding and character, it was to this man 
             the United States Senate turned when it needed to develop 
             a Code of Ethics for its membership, and how well they 
             chose!
               I am told that during the trying days immediately 
             following the recent senseless tragedy that struck him 
             down, and while he literally lay at death's door, he was 
             thinking not so much of himself, of his responsibility, 
             but of a Prayer Meeting which was his responsibility, the 
             President's Prayer Breakfast.
               We're delighted that he is here today. Our continuous 
             prayer is that he will soon be completely recovered and 
             able once again to resume his useful and effective work in 
             the United States Senate and elsewhere.
               And now, Mr. President, it is my great pleasure and 
             honor on behalf of the Class of 1923, to present this 
             likeness of our beloved friend of more than half a 
             century. It's our hope that those who look upon it here 
             will be reminded of those noble virtues with which he is 
             so richly endowed, and further, that many young 
             Mississippians may be motivated by his record to follow in 
             his footsteps as they work and study here in preparation 
             for lives of services. In so doing they can, and I quote 
             the Senator, ``find the Light that comes from Above, which 
             will guide them aright,'' as it has certainly guided him. 
             The painting will now be unveiled by little Mr. Hamp 
             Stennis, the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Hampton Stennis of 
             Jackson, and the grandson of Senator and Mrs. Stennis. 
             (Unveiling).
               Thank you, little Hamp.
               I'm asked to announce that the painting will be on 
             display in the Stennis Suite in the Mitchell Library this 
             afternoon, so those of you who do not have an opportunity 
             to see it at close range will be able to see it there.
               Thank you very much.
               Now the President of Mississippi State University, Dr. 
             Giles, will come to make the acceptance.
               Mr. Giles. Mr. Fatherree, as President of Mississippi 
             State University, I do accept for the University this 
             splendid portrait of our distinguished alumnus, Senator 
             John C. Stennis.
               You know, in the long history of mankind there have been 
             times, and there are times now, when it seems that we have 
             many leaders who take us through the difficult times. This 
             was so when this great Nation of ours was founded. It 
             seemed that we had great leadership in the country, simply 
             by the dozen. There have been other times in the history 
             of mankind when there has been a dearth of leadership. It 
             is at these times that somehow, God in His wisdom has 
             selected a few to take positions of leadership. These 
             leaders, unlike times when leadership is here in plenty, 
             have a special burden. Our own Senator John C. Stennis is 
             one of those selected by the Lord in a time when there is 
             a dearth of leadership in the land, and it has been on his 
             shoulders that heavy burdens have fallen. Therefore, we 
             are especially pleased and proud that Mississippi State 
             University not only can claim him, but to have this 
             splendid portrait of him so those who follow us can see 
             the likeness of the person who was a great leader in times 
             like these.
               Senator Stennis, we're proud, and we do accept this 
             portrait.
               Thank you.
               Mr. Fatherree. Thank you, Dr. Giles, and at this time we 
             give an invitation to Senator Stennis to respond if he 
             cares to do so.
               Senator Stennis. Dr. Giles, members of the Class of 
             1923, and other fellow alumni, and other friends:
               Even though I knew that the presentation of this 
             portrait was to be a part of the program this morning, I 
             certainly find that I'm not prepared for it, but I am 
             grateful and I want to especially thank the Class of 1923. 
             And no man's ever been indebted to fellow classmates more 
             than I have, not only while we were here but during those 
             years that have intervened. I want to especially thank 
             them for this wonderful tribute and for the spirit behind 
             it, and for all of the words that your able spokesman said 
             in the presentation.
               And as a member of that class, friends, let me say 
             especially to my classmates that T.B. Fatherree has 
             carried a great part of the load of the life secretary, 
             especially during most of the years that I've been in 
             Washington, and more especially the last few years, and 
             altogether this year. I know how much work he's put in, 
             and he's had some very fine helpers. I want to thank him 
             especially as one member of the class and as your life 
             secretary, and I know you feel those sentiments 
             yourselves.
               Let me say again to the membership, that I've 
             appreciated you and remembered you all these years with 
             the utmost satisfaction and profit. I have no prepared 
             speech this morning, my friends. I didn't think the 
             occasion was such that I could or should. I do want you to 
             indulge me a few minutes here with just a little passing 
             thought. This is a kind of day of firsts for me. This is 
             my first venture out from the hospital to which I must 
             return, so my first venture was a happy one to make tracks 
             again on this wonderful campus. I have another first that 
             comes to mind, too. It was here that I first met my wife, 
             Miss Coy, and I want to thank her, too, for all these 
             years--not quite fifty yet, that she's brought me of 
             happiness and help, spelled out in the biggest kind of 
             ways.
               I have another first here, too. I finally found my first 
             doctor, and I'll say something special about him in a 
             minute, that actually prescribed all play and no work. And 
             that's the prescription he has me on right now at this 
             interval, so I said we'll adopt that, and I want you to 
             let me go down to Mississippi State on April 14. But I 
             told him that I don't feel that I can go without a doctor 
             along with me, and I said, ``Now what can you do about 
             that?'' He said, ``Well, I've been hinting for an 
             invitation to go down there,'' so I was delighted. He 
             brought me along--I wasn't exactly bringing him. I want to 
             impose on him for just a minute this morning, to 
             especially introduce him to you and I'm going to ask him 
             to take a bow. But I do want to introduce him to you now 
             in a special way a man that has become my friend in the 
             last several weeks, the man that led a fine team of 
             surgeons, a fine young man, one of the prizes of the Army 
             Medical Corps, and one of the finest surgeons in his field 
             in the United States; the man that with the help of 
             Providence and with the help of a team of surgeons backing 
             him up--I have no doubt about it, he saved my life--and it 
             is with special pleasure that I ask him to take a bow: 
             Colonel Robert Muir, United States Army Medical Corps.
               Now friends, as I say, you know where my heart is, I 
             don't have to praise you nor praise Mississippi State. And 
             I have no prepared remarks but I do have a thought that I 
             want to bring. Always, with any class, the joys and the 
             satisfaction, of course, of a graduation reunion make for 
             a happy occasion,but for our Class of 1923 perhaps it 
             would be more fitting to think briefly of the time of our 
             arrival here as Freshmen four years before our graduation. 
             To borrow a term now in vogue in Washington because of the 
             famous Watergate controversy, when we arrived here we were 
             just the ``raw files,'' the raw files of the forthcoming 
             Class of 1923. And although we did not realize at that 
             time, the most important fact of life for us was that some 
             fifty years previously worthy leaders had come to the 
             place of this campus and had planted a college. Those were 
             hard times, those were times not encouraging; those were 
             times that discouraged hope, in 1878. But those founders 
             were persons who had faith in the future and faith in the 
             youth of our Nation. And when we entered here fifty years 
             later the college might not have been fully adequate even 
             by standards of fifty years ago, but it was here, its 
             doors were open to us, and it gave us a chance. And with 
             everyone of us, that was a big thing, a great thing.
               At least we were from a background that represented 
             western civilization, I think, at its best, and we had 
             some aptitudes that were on the positive side, the 
             favorable side. And above all, I think these included a 
             willingness to apply enough time and personal effort and 
             hard work to accomplish a definite and worthy purpose.
               However, I don't want to dwell here this morning, even 
             for a few minutes, just on the past. The big news of this 
             campus does not relate to the past. Happily, the big news 
             relates to the future, and the present; the greatly 
             expanded role of our University; the greatly increased 
             number of youth who are served here each year; the vision, 
             the planning, and the courageous leadership of President 
             William Giles, his staff and the faculty of the 
             University; the success of the University in becoming a 
             greater and greater channel for service and leadership for 
             the people of our State; the tremendous strength which the 
             extensive and in-depth support of alumni and other friends 
             have given to the University, and it is enough to really 
             count. Great days are ahead for our Alumni Association. 
             These things are the news of the day here at Mississippi 
             State; these things are the current pattern of the day 
             here. There is still plenty of room, fellow alumni, for 
             all of us to help and to serve.
               Specifically, I want to mention one point which is a 
             contribution that all of us can make to the youth of 
             today, to the youth in whom I have an abounding faith. 
             That is, we can help make the individual realize early 
             that his or her attainments and satisfactions must come 
             largely, inevitably, from his or her willingness to apply 
             steady personal effort to accomplish a worthy purpose. As 
             was true with all of us in every generation, it is 
             motivation which is the truly essential need of every 
             individual, motivation of both youth and adult. There is 
             nothing that I've found that's worthwhile that someone can 
             give you, and there's nothing that the Government can give 
             you that's enduring or worthwhile that really goes to make 
             character, and goes to make enduring, worthwhile things 
             upon which our society and our civilization, our 
             government, even our family is built. So let it continue 
             to be the rule of life here, as it is with Dr. Giles now, 
             and may it always be the rule of life on this Campus, that 
             every person, to stay here, has to apply himself and has 
             to work at making a contribution, and has to earn and pay 
             his own way. May it ever be such, and I think as long as 
             our Nation stays on that path, allowing for some ups and 
             downs and temporary clouds, that our form of government 
             will prevail; that our society will prevail; and our 
             civilization will stand.
               God give us strength and the Light that can come from On 
             High, the courage to do our part, and the will to look for 
             and find and use that added strength that comes from a 
             Higher Power. God bless you all.
               Tommy Everett (President, Mississippi State Alumni 
             Association). Thank you, Senator Stennis. I think we will 
             all acknowledge that modern medicine and techniques, and 
             skilled physicians and skilled surgeons have a great deal 
             to do with this remarkable recovery. But I feel we will 
             all recognize also that God had a hand in it and that many 
             prayers were answered when this man began his road to 
             recovery. Senator Stennis, God bless you.
                         Senator Stennis Remarks at Luncheon
               Mr. Chairman, unaccustomed as I am to public speaking--I 
             really haven't been called on in a good while, since we 
             were in the other building--with all these fine people 
             here I don't like to talk about myself or my personal 
             experiences. Just let me say this, friends, that I know 
             how much help it is to have messages and expressions from 
             thousands of you; to say that the encouraging words and 
             expressions of good wishes, I know how much that means--it 
             means a great deal. I shall always be grateful to the 
             people that, whether they took time to file an expression 
             or not, they manifested their interest and said a prayer 
             and sent a prayer that I might recover. It did mean a lot; 
             it still means a lot to me, and makes me very humble. As I 
             said this morning, in introducing a man who is now my 
             personal friend (I'm not going to introduce him again), 
             with the help of Providence and some other good surgeons 
             he saved my life, and I believe that with all my heart and 
             I'm most grateful for it. Now I'm not going to make a 
             speech, but I do want to mention two things here. Most of 
             us are alumni and the four corners of the Nation are 
             represented here today. I'm mighty proud of the way that 
             Dr. Giles and his administration and all those connected 
             with the University now, in making it a going concern (the 
             Alumni Association included, the Development Foundation 
             included)--I'm very proud of the fine work they are doing 
             and the constructive outlook they have, and the talent and 
             natural resources that they have. Every alumnus should be 
             proud to walk down the street, any time, anywhere, and 
             point with pride to the fact that he is an alumnus, or was 
             at one time a student. I think we are moving forward to 
             even greater and bigger events. Dr. Giles, I say that we 
             can go down the street and look anyone in the eye, even 
             right after a bad football score. We don't have any 
             apologies to make for that. There may be someone else 
             having to apologize before long, about some of their 
             scores.
               I want to mention another thing that makes me feel 
             mighty good. It's the spirit and attitude and dedication 
             and devotion of the alumni who do not live in the State, 
             who went beyond the borders of our own State. They keep 
             their connections, their interest, their support, and they 
             come back here and visit with us and give time and 
             attention. It means a great deal, often it's a 
             considerable leavening in the bread. We want you all to 
             come, in that group. We never take you for granted, but 
             appreciate you.
               And I'll illustrate the way we feel toward you in just a 
             little brief story. Ike Hoover (not Herbert Hoover), was 
             the head butler or waiter in the White House for many, 
             many years. Like so many others, he wrote a book. And he 
             tells a story in there about the first time he delivered a 
             pay check to former President Calvin Coolidge, whom some 
             of you may remember, especially for the way he squeezed a 
             dollar, both public and private, and for his very few 
             words. Hoover said he planned the idea of getting his own 
             picture on the front page of every paper in the United 
             States, so he planted a photographer outside the door, and 
             following custom carried the new President Calvin Coolidge 
             his paycheck from the Treasurer on a silver platter. He 
             thought the conversation would open up one way or another, 
             and that he would have a chance to suggest a picture and 
             the photographer would walk right in. He said he went in 
             and Coolidge was busy at his desk looking at some 
             documents. He bowed, but the President didn't look up. He 
             stepped over in front of him and said, ``Mr. President, 
             your first paycheck.'' Without looking up, the President 
             ran his hand in his pocket, pulled out a little key and 
             put it in the drawer of his desk and turned the key and 
             unlocked it, and pulled the drawer out and pulled out a 
             little letter opener and slit the letter open, took the 
             check out and laid it face down on the desk, smoothed out 
             the envelope and put it in the drawer as if it might be 
             put to further use, closed the drawer, turned the key, put 
             the key back in his pocket. He said by then he (Hoover) 
             decided there wasn't a chance to get a picture, so he was 
             backing out in great embarrassment, and just as he clicked 
             the door knob, though, President Coolidge looked up to him 
             and said, ``Come again.''
             Mississippi Dinner Honoring United States Senator John C. 
                                       Stennis

                                      Hotel Heidelberg, Jackson, MS,
                                                       March 3, 1969.

               When Mississippians sent John Stennis to the U.S. Senate 
             in 1947, he promised to ``plow a straight furrow right to 
             the end of my row.'' He has kept that promise, but his 
             record of public service has surpassed the expectations of 
             even his closest and warmest friends. During his twenty-
             two years in the Senate, John Stennis has built a solid 
             record of achievements for Mississippi and the Nation--a 
             conservative, sound and constructive record in which every 
             Mississippian can take pride.
               Senator Stennis has repeatedly said that he is first a 
             Senator from Mississippi and that his first duty and 
             loyalty is to the State and the people he represents. He 
             has actively supported legislation to encourage all 
             segments of Mississippi's economy, with special emphasis 
             on agriculture, forestry, industrial development, small 
             businesses and public works. He has worked consistently to 
             improve education at all levels and has given particular 
             attention to improving the opportunities for young 
             Mississippians.
               While fully and capably representing his State, he 
             continues to be a valuable servant of the Nation. For 
             eight years, as chairman of the Preparedness Investigating 
             Subcommittee, he has stood watch over our national 
             security.
               As chairman of the Senate's Select Committee on Ethics, 
             Standards and Conduct, he has been guardian of Senate 
             ethics, presiding over his duties with judicial integrity, 
             marked by a thorough knowledge and deep respect for the 
             law based upon principles of constitutional government.
               As senior member of the Aeronautical and Space Sciences 
             Committee, he has played a major role in the development 
             and support of our space projects. As an influential 
             member of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Stennis 
             has a strong voice in the appropriation of funds for every 
             agency of the U.S. Government. He is a member of the 
             Agriculture, Defense, Deficiencies and Supplemental, 
             Independent Offices, Labor, Health, Education and Welfare, 
             and Public Works Subcommittees.
               Senator Stennis is chairman of the Appropriations 
             Subcommittee on Transportation, has the duty to review and 
             approve all money appropriated for the Federal Aviation 
             Agency, the Coast Guard, the Bureau of Public Roads, and 
             the Civil Aeronautics Board and the Interstate Commerce 
             Commission.
               He now must shoulder additional responsibilities as 
             chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. His 
             thoughts and actions will have a direct bearing on world 
             peace and the security of free nations.
               As he assumes that great responsibility, Mississippians 
             unite in expressing our confidence that he will meet the 
             challenges of these new tasks in the same splendid and 
             successful way he has met challenges of the past.
               As a Mississippian, an American and a Statesman, he will 
             continue to plow his furrow right down to the end of his 
             row.
                                       PROGRAM

                                    Introductions

                                     Invocation
               Dr. W. Douglas Hudgins

                                 The National Anthem
               Naval Air Training Command Choir

                                       Remarks
               Lieutenant Governor Charles L. Sullivan, presiding.
               Governor John Bell Williams.
               Senator James O. Eastland.
               Honorable Melvin R. Laird.
               Captain Walter Schirra, Jr.
               Representative L. Mendel Rivers.
               Senator Richard B. Russell.
               Senator Margaret Chase Smith

                           Introduction of Senator Stennis
               Honorable Robert D. Morrow, Sr.

                                      Response
               Senator John C. Stennis

                                     Benediction
               Most Reverend Joseph B. Brunini.

                                  God Bless America
               14th Army Band, Womens Army Corps
                                   THE WHITE HOUSE
                                   Washington, DC
                                                    February 20, 1969
               Dear John: It was good to see you at the White House 
             yesterday at our first bipartisan meeting.
               I had intended then to congratulate you on your new 
             responsibilities as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services 
             Committee, but time did not permit.
               Now I understand that your friends are gathering at 
             dinner to honor you on March the third. So, perhaps you'll 
             forgive the delay in delivery if this letter is sent to 
             you on that occasion, so that my best wishes can be added 
             to those of your many friends.
               John, I'm delighted to be able to join with other 
             national and local leaders in honoring and acknowledging 
             the key role you have been and are playing in the defense 
             of our country.
               With warm regards,
                  Sincerely,
                                                       Richard Nixon.
                                          a

               I am pleased to join the friends and admirers of Senator 
             Stennis in honoring the new Chairman of the Senate Armed 
             Services Committee.
               I served with John Stennis for more than a decade. We 
             worked closely in such vital areas as military 
             preparedness, the space program, and national defense. I 
             came to admire his dedication and his grasp of some of the 
             most vital issues facing our Nation.
               I know that he will provide wise leadership to the Armed 
             Services Committee.
               I congratulate him, and I salute those who have gathered 
             to honor him.
                  Sincerely,
                                                   Lyndon B. Johnson.
                                          a

               Permit me to join with your many friends in 
             congratulating you on your assumption of the Chairmanship 
             of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
               Your new honor, outstanding as it is, is but another in 
             list of achievements of a distinguished career.
                  Sincerely,
                                                Dwight D. Eisenhower.
                                          a
                                Distinguished Guests
               Honorable Richard B. Russell, Senator from Georgia.
               Honorable Margaret Chase Smith, Senator from Maine.
               Honorable Barry Goldwater, Senator from Arizona.
               Honorable Milton Young, Senator from North Dakota.
               Honorable Henry Jackson, Senator from Washington.
               Honorable Robert Byrd, Senator from West Virginia.
               Honorable L. Mendel Rivers, Representative from South 
             Carolina.
               Honorable Melvin R. Laird, Secretary of Defense.
               Honorable Stanley R. Resor, Secretary of the Army.
               Honorable John H. Chafee, Secretary of the Navy.
               Dr. Robert S. Seamans, Jr., Secretary of the Air Force.
               Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, Chief of Naval Operations.
               General John P. McConnell, Chief of Staff of the Air 
             Force.
               General Leonard F. Chapman, Jr., Commandant of the 
             Marine Corps.
               Captain Walter Schirra, Jr., Astronaut.
               Dr. Thomas O. Paine, Acting Administrator, NASA.
               Admiral Willard J. Smith, Commandant of the Coast Guard.
               Vice Admiral H.G. Rickover, Atomic Energy Commission.
               Lt. General John L. Throckmorton, Commanding General, 
             Third Army.
               Major General William J. Sutton, Chief, Army Reserves.
               Major General Maurice L. Watts, President, Adjutants 
             General Association.
               Admiral John McCain, Commander in Chief, Pacific.
               Major General Winston P. Wilson, Chief, National Guard 
             Bureau.
               Major General James C. McGehee, Commanding General, 
             Keesler AFB.
                 

                          Newspaper Articles and Editorials
                     [From the Associated Press, April 23, 1995]
                      Former Senator John C. Stennis Dead at 93
                                (By Stephen Hawkins)
               Former Senator John C. Stennis, a courtly Mississippi 
             Democrat who exercised vast influence over America's 
             military during his four decades in the Senate, died 
             Sunday. He was 93.
               Stennis died about 3:30 p.m. at St. Dominic Hospital, 
             where he had been taken several days ago for pneumonia, 
             said his son John Hampton Stennis.
               Stennis earned a reputation in Washington for fairness 
             and finesse that landed him delicate committee assignments 
             and close association with eight U.S. Presidents. But his 
             opposition to integration blotted his record.
               Stennis joined the Senate in 1947. At the time of his 
             retirement in 1988, he was its oldest member.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS). ``He 
             was truly a man of great stature. We have suffered a great 
             loss.''
               Stennis, nicknamed the ``conscience of the Senate'' for 
             his work on the Senate's code of ethics and strict 
             religious convictions, overcame personal tragedy to 
             continue public service.
               He was wounded by robbers and left bleeding on the 
             sidewalk near his northwest Washington home in 1973. Then-
             President Nixon, emerging from Stennis' hospital room, 
             said the Senator would survive because, ``He's got the 
             will to live in spades.''
               Coy Hines Stennis, his wife of 52 years, died in 1983. 
             And in 1984, he lost his left leg to cancer, and had to 
             use a wheelchair.
               ``Discouraged? I suppose everybody's had his ups and 
             downs. But I've never surrendered,'' Stennis said then.
               Stennis, serving as chairman of both the Armed Services 
             Committee and the Defense Subcommittee of the 
             Appropriations Committee during the l970s, wielded more 
             clout over military matters than perhaps any civilian 
             except the President.
               He was a consistent advocate of the need for a strong 
             military.
               ``If there is one thing I'm unyielding and unbending on, 
             it is that we must have the very best weapons,'' he once 
             said.
               After militants in Iran seized the American Embassy and 
             held its employees hostage in late 1979, Stennis suggested 
             a fleet of small aircraft carriers be built to counter 
             such crises around the world.
               ``Trouble can come from anywhere now,'' he said. ``We've 
             got to be ready for instant action.''
               Soon after, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and 
             Stennis called for U.S. military support bases near 
             Mideast oil fields.
               Though he stood for a tough military, Stennis did not 
             always back presidential military policy.
               He was a leading backer of the Vietnam War. However, in 
             the war's waning days, he co-sponsored legislation to set 
             limits on a President's power to commit American forces to 
             combat without Congressional consent.
               A decade later, Stennis opposed using that law--the War 
             Powers Act of 1973--to permit President Reagan to keep 
             Marine peacekeeping troops in Lebanon.
               He condemned the Supreme Court's 1954 school 
             desegregation decision, but in 1983 he switched and voted 
             for an extension of the Voting Rights Act.
               He later said he always supported the advancement of all 
             races.
               Stennis was born August 3, 1901, in DeKalb and graduated 
             from Mississippi State University in 1923 before attending 
             the University of Virginia Law School.
               He began his public service in 1928 in the Mississippi 
             Legislature, then served as a district attorney and 
             circuit judge before joining the U.S. Senate.
               After his retirement, Stennis moved to the Mississippi 
             State University campus in Starkville, which also is the 
             home of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government and 
             the Stennis Center for Public Service, created by 
             Congress.
               ``I do believe the most important thing I can do now is 
             to help young people understand the past and prepare for 
             the future,'' Stennis said in 1990 while serving as 
             executive in residence at the university. ``As long as I 
             have energy left, I want to use it to the benefit of 
             students.''
               Also named for the Senator is NASA's National Space 
             Technology Laboratory in southern Mississippi. The John C. 
             Stennis Space Center tests rocket motors.
               ``How would I like to be remembered? I haven't thought 
             about that a whole lot,'' Stennis said in a 1985 
             interview. ``You couldn't give me a finer compliment than 
             just to say, `He did his best.' ''
               The Senator's body will lie in state Tuesday from 10 
             a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson and 
             from 4-6 p.m. at the DeKalb Presbyterian Church in DeKalb. 
             Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at 
             Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb.
               Survivors include his son, a Jackson lawyer, and his 
             daughter, Margaret Womble.
                                          a
                       [From Reuters, Limited, April 23, 1995]
                 Former Long-time Mississippi Senator Dies at Age 93
                                     (Editorial)
               Former U.S. Senator John Stennis, a conservative 
             Democrat from Mississippi, died at 4 p.m. Sunday in St. 
             Dominic's Hospital here, a hospital spokeswoman reported.
               St. Dominic's nursing supervisor Susan Crowdus told 
             Reuters she could not release the cause of death, but NBC 
             News reported Sunday that Stennis, 93, died of pneumonia.
               Stennis served four decades in the Senate, beginning in 
             1948. Throughout his long Senate career, he was known as a 
             courtly gentleman, always with a friendly word for 
             everyone, who believed in honor, patriotism and fiscal 
             conservatism.
               He stood out as soft-spoken opponent of civil rights 
             laws and was best known during his Senate career as a 
             leader of the congressional faction favoring a strong U.S. 
             military.
               Stennis was chairman of the powerful Senate Armed 
             Services Committee from 1969 until 1981, wielding his 
             influence on every aspect of U.S. defense power.
               During the 1950s, Stennis was named to the committee 
             investigating Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose 
             free-swinging anti-communist accusations gave rise to the 
             word ``McCarthyism.'' He later accused McCarthy of 
             spilling ``slush and slime'' on the Senate through his 
             innuendo and charges.
               The Senate soon afterwards took the unusual step of 
             voting to censure the Wisconsin Senator--a move that 
             pushed his career downhill.
               He also served on the Senate Watergate Committee 
             investigating the role of then-President Richard Nixon in 
             the 1972 burglary of the Democratic Party headquarters.
               In 1973, a gunman shot him in the stomach outside his 
             Washington home but he soon overcame the serious injuries.
               He had open heart surgery in December 1983 but returned 
             to work in 1984. A year later, he had a cancerous leg 
             removed. Stennis and his wife, Coy, had two children.
                                          a
                      [From the Clarion-Ledger, April 24, 1995]
                          Longtime Power Stennis Dies at 93
                            (Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer)
               John Cornelius Stennis, 93, a drawling Mississippi 
             country lawyer who attained some of the most powerful 
             positions during four decades in the U.S. Senate, died of 
             pneumonia Sunday at St. Dominic/Jackson Memorial Hospital.
               He had been hospitalized since Thursday, said his son, 
             John Hampton Stennis of Jackson.
               The body will lie in state Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 1 
             p.m. at the Old Capitol in Jackson and from 4-6 p.m. at 
             DeKalb Presbyterian Church. Graveside services are 11 a.m. 
             Wednesday at Pine Crest Cemetery in DeKalb. Southern 
             Mortuary Services in Jackson is handling arrangements.
               Stennis, who retired in 1988, played a major role in the 
             country's affairs and at one time carried as much clout 
             over military matters as any civilian except the 
             President.
               ``I shall go to the Senate without obligations or 
             commitments, save to serve the plain people of 
             Mississippi,'' the DeKalb native said November 5, 1947, 
             upon his election.
               Throughout his Senate career, Stennis lived in an 
             unassuming, one-story white clapboard house built in 1930 
             and located a few dozen yards from Mississippi 39. His 
             office, a nondescript red brick building across from the 
             county courthouse, bore a simple sign above the door: 
             ``John C. Stennis, Lawyer.''
               That sign was a deceptively modest description for a 
             country-born lawyer who rose to become a confidant of 
             American Presidents and a major player in the events that 
             led the United States through the Cold War, the Southern 
             civil rights movement, the Watergate scandal and into the 
             Reagan years.
               ``He was one of the great statesmen for our Nation in 
             the 20th century,'' 4th District U.S. Representative Sonny 
             Montgomery said Sunday. The two were acquainted for more 
             than a half-century and served together 23 years in 
             Congress. ``History will record John Stennis as a true son 
             of the South. His legacy in Mississippi will never 
             disappear.''
               One of seven children, Stennis was born on a Kemper 
             County farm 36 years after the end of the Civil War. He 
             attended county schools and graduated from Kemper County 
             Agricultural High School in 1919.
               After receiving his bachelor's degree from Mississippi 
             A&M College--now Mississippi State University--Stennis 
             went on to receive his law degree and a Phi Beta Kappa key 
             from the University of Virginia in 1928.
               Elected to two terms in the Mississippi House, Stennis 
             successfully campaigned for the district prosecuting 
             attorney post, in which he served until 1935.
               At 35, Stennis was named by then-Governor Hugh White to 
             fill a circuit judge vacancy, making Stennis the State's 
             youngest member of the bench. Through three terms, he 
             never had a civil case overturned on appeal.
               The death of fiery Senator Theodore Bilbo in 1947 
             provided Stennis the opportunity to attain the government 
             position he desired.
               During the campaign, Stennis sidestepped talk of white 
             supremacy and focused on his pledge: ``Agriculture 
             first.''
               Though he refused to take part in the campaign's race-
             baiting demagoguery, Stennis nonetheless was a supporter 
             of State's rights and segregation. His appeal, however, 
             was drawn from intellect, not hate.
               ``Our customs and traditions may be assailed, but we can 
             stand firm in our rights to make our own decisions about 
             such matters,'' Stennis said on the campaign trail.
               Stennis credited much of his success as a legislator to 
             his early association with U.S. Senator Richard Russell of 
             Georgia, then chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
               In 1969, President Richard Nixon revealed to Stennis and 
             Russell his plans to bomb Cambodia because they could be 
             trusted not to leak the bombing news to the media.
               While he avoided race during his 1947 campaign, Stennis 
             quickly got caught up in the national civil rights debate 
             once he got to Washington.
               His first two speeches on the floor of the Senate were 
             against federal anti-lynching, anti-poll tax and equal 
             employment legislation--claiming they represented 
             unconstitutional interference with the State's rights to 
             govern themselves.
               He became a leader of the move to maintain racial 
             segregation in the South and participated in filibusters 
             that prevented votes being taken on civil rights 
             legislation. In 1956, he helped draft the Southern 
             Manifesto, a document signed by 101 Southern Congressmen 
             to voice their opposition to desegregation.
               But once the civil rights laws were enacted in the 
             1960s, Stennis urged compliance with the changes.
               In a 1965 plea, Stennis said Mississippi ``above all 
             must maintain a spirit of law and order. Any other course 
             will take us downward and will eventually blight our 
             future.''
               By 1982, Stennis' stance on racial issues had changed to 
             the point he voted for an extension of the 1965 Voting 
             Rights Act.
               Supporters said his about-face was a genuine 
             philosophical change and not politically based.
               Stennis also stepped to the front in 1954 when he became 
             the first Senate Democrat to call for the censure of red-
             baiting Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin.
               In a speech that made national headlines, Stennis said 
             McCarthy had poured ``slush and slime'' on the Senate with 
             his attacks. Senate observers saw his speech as a serious 
             blow at McCarthy's efforts to escape censure.
               Stennis' speech drew accolades from around the country 
             and made him an overnight sensation. ``I didn't know what 
             it was to get such press as that,'' he said.
               It was also in 1954 that Stennis warned that the United 
             States was in danger of being drawn into the fighting in 
             Vietnam by supplying assistance to the French effort to 
             defeat the Vietnamese communists.
               Committing U.S. forces to the fight could result in a 
             ``long, costly and indecisive war that will leave us 
             without victory,'' he warned.
               Later, the U.S. forces began a full-scale fight against 
             the communists. Stennis, who had moved up as Armed 
             Services chairman, gave the war his total support. In 
             1966, he suggested the use of tactical nuclear weapons in 
             Southeast Asia should the Chinese enter the war.
               Stennis landed on the powerful Appropriations Committee 
             in 1955, and he used the assignment to Mississippi's long-
             term benefit.
               As chairman of the Energy and Water Development 
             Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, he was able 
             to get the $2 billion needed to construct the 234-mile 
             Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, considered pure pork by 
             critics.
               In 1969, Stennis took over as chairman of the Armed 
             Services Committee, which gave him a strong voice on 
             national defense issues. But the advancement came at the 
             height of the Vietnam War when critics of the military 
             wanted to scale back spending.
               Stennis used his newfound authority in 1969 to influence 
             Nixon's administration to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to 
             delay for a year a desegregation order for 33 Mississippi 
             school districts. It was later learned that Stennis 
             threatened to abandon leadership on an antiballistic 
             missile being debated by the Senate if the order was not 
             delayed.
               For 31 years, Stennis was the junior Senator from 
             Mississippi, teaming with the late Senator James Eastland 
             of Doddsville, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee 
             and later President Pro Tempore, to form a powerful 
             coalition involving different personalities and styles.
               Stennis' career and his life almost ended abruptly in 
             1973 when he was critically wounded by gunshots from two 
             young muggers outside his Washington home. The Senator was 
             shot in the left side and in the thigh after his 
             assailants took his wallet, a gold pocket watch, his Phi 
             Beta Kappa key and a quarter. For five weeks the 71-year-
             old Stennis slipped in and out of consciousness in Walter 
             Reed Army Hospital.
               Stennis faced his first serious political challenger in 
             1982 from well-financed Republican Haley Barbour of Yazoo 
             City. The campaign focused primarily on age--whether 
             Stennis at 81 was too old or Barbour at 34 was too young.
               Stennis defeated Barbour with 65 percent of the vote, 
             carrying all but Rankin and Yazoo counties.
               In 1983, ``Mis Coy,'' his wife of 54 years, died. Also 
             that year, he had cardiovascular surgery and suffered 
             pneumonia. A year later, doctors removed his cancerous 
             left leg.
               With his health problems and his age working against 
             him, Stennis announced his retirement on October 19, 1987, 
             shortly after routine prostate surgery in Washington.
               ``I am forced to recognize that another six-year term in 
             the Senate would require me to promise to continue my work 
             here through age 93,'' the 86-year-old Stennis said in 
             announcing his decision.
               In failing health, Stennis spent the last few years of 
             his life in St. Catherine's Village nursing home in 
             Madison. Montgomery said he visited Stennis in the nursing 
             home about a year ago and spoke with him briefly. ``He had 
             on a bow tie and a suit, dressed just like he was getting 
             ready to go to the Senate,'' Montgomery said.
               Other than Stennis' son, survivors include: daughter, 
             Margaret Womble of Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and six 
             grandchildren.
               Memorials may be made in Stennis' name to an educational 
             or religious charitable organization of the donor's 
             choice.
                                          a
                      [From the Clarion-Ledger, April 24, 1995]
                        No Negatives for the Kemper Statesman
                                (By Andy Kanengiser)
               John Cornelius Stennis brought dignity and integrity to 
             American politics during his 41-year U.S. Senate career, 
             rare qualities in Washington these days.
               Serving Presidents from Truman to Reagan, the Gentleman 
             from Mississippi was a powerhouse in the Nation's Capitol 
             who never forgot his home State. With a battleship, space 
             center, airport and public service center in his honor, 
             few will forget the Kemper County native.
               The unassuming DeKalb lawyer and circuit judge who 
             succeeded the ardent segregationist Theodore Bilbo in a 
             special election in 1947 would be an excellent role model 
             for any young person aspiring to a political career, said 
             former Governor William Waller.
               ``I think he had a judicious, courtly and refined 
             approach to politics,'' Waller said. ``He had a real 
             statesmanlike attitude and showed conservative leadership 
             on defense. During his longtime service in the Senate, he 
             was constantly referred to as a likely candidate for the 
             U.S. Supreme Court. He had no negatives.''
               Waller, a Jackson lawyer and Mississippi's Governor from 
             1972 to 1976, recalls Stennis transcended several critical 
             eras in U.S. politics--from the days of segregation to 
             desegregation and affirmative action. And he did it 
             without being controversial, Waller said.
               Stennis who died Sunday at the age of 93, didn't show 
             the fiery rhetoric on racial issues, for years the 
             hallmark of a number of political contemporaries in the 
             South.
               ``During his early era it was popular to be a strong 
             segregationist, but on a major scale I never believed that 
             he was,'' said State Senator David Jordan of Greenwood, a 
             longtime civil rights activist. ``He was a decent person 
             who went through a metamorphosis. Through the years, he 
             softened up.''
               Mississippi State University political science professor 
             Ed Clynch said Stennis was ``not a race baiter.''
               ``I do think he changed over the years. His rhetoric was 
             more temperate on civil rights,'' he said.
               While avoiding civil rights battles, Stennis steered 
             federal projects to Mississippi as chairman of the Senate 
             Armed Services Committee during the Vietnam War era and 
             the Senate Appropriations Committee in the late 1980s.
               ``In Mississippi, he will be remembered as the 
             individual who did his best to help his State--he brought 
             Mississippi several federal installations,'' Clynch said. 
             From the Stennis Space Center on the Gulf Coast to Ingalls 
             Shipbuilding to the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, he 
             brought Washington's money to the Nation's poorest State.
               Today, few members of the Republican-led Congress of 
             1995 want to be associated with political pork.
               The mild-mannered Stennis also brought a touch of class 
             to a state of affairs where the American populace screams 
             for term limits and politicians rank on the bottom rungs 
             of opinion polls.
               ``I think he will be remembered, first of all, for his 
             integrity. He was a well-respected individual,'' Clynch 
             said.
               Stennis, who received a bachelor's degree in general 
             science in 1923 from then Mississippi A&M College, was 
             regarded as a saint on the Starkville campus. He never 
             forgot where his roots were--deciding to teach political 
             science for a year after his 1989 Senate retirement until 
             ill health forced him to quit.
               Clynch, who watched CBS News report the Senator's death, 
             said his former MSU colleague was very interested in 
             students. It was a trait that stayed with him throughout 
             his illustrious career. ``He was very interested in 
             encouraging people to get involved in the public sector. 
             He felt public service was an important calling.''
               Leaving office a lifelong Democrat, Stennis was admired 
             by the politically powerful from both sides of the aisle, 
             including President Reagan, a Republican. ``Senator, you 
             have devoted your life to the service of our Nation,'' 
             Reagan told the Mississippian at a Washington farewell 
             dinner in June 1988. ``I can do no more than say, on 
             behalf of the American people, thank you for your 
             dedicated service.''
                                          a
                      [From the Clarion-Ledger, April 24, 1995]
               Ability to Adapt Helped Stennis Endure and Mississippi 
                                       Advance
                           (By Butch John and Jay Hughes)
               U.S. Senator John C. Stennis was remembered Sunday as a 
             man willing and able to adapt to sweeping change in 
             Mississippi without surrendering his dignity or his 
             devotion to its people.
               A staunch segregationist during his early years in the 
             U.S. Senate, he became an enthusiastic proponent of 
             equality for all Mississippians in his later years, former 
             State Democratic Party Chairman Ed Cole said.
               ``He had a deep and abiding respect for people, even 
             when they disagreed with him. He had a deep and abiding 
             faith in the good of people, all people,'' said Cole, the 
             first black political professional employed by Stennis.
               Hired in 1981 to work in Stennis' Jackson Congressional 
             office, Cole said Stennis, 93, who died Sunday of 
             pneumonia, never forgot the people who helped his four-
             decade career in the U.S. Senate.
               And his State won't forget him, said Governor Kirk 
             Fordice, who ordered flags at State offices lowered to 
             half-staff in mourning for Stennis.
               ``All of Mississippi mourns for John C. Stennis, one of 
             the outstanding Americans ever to serve in the United 
             States Senate,'' Fordice said. ``His service to this State 
             was long and faithful.''
               Fordice, a Republican, said he once served on Stennis' 
             local reelection committee in Vicksburg at the Senator's 
             request, ``probably as a note of bipartisanship.''
               ``He was that kind of a guy,'' Fordice said. ``In the 
             olden days I think there was a lot less partisanship.''
               Stennis never fell prey to many politicians' flaw of 
             forgetting the people who put him in office,'' Cole said.
               ``I was constantly amazed how he remembered the small 
             things people did for him--seven, eight, nine races 
             before,'' Cole said. ``He would often have you drive up a 
             back road to see some farmer who nobody knew about, and 
             nobody knew Senator Stennis knew anything about. He never 
             forgot them.''
               Others who knew him said he never lost his down-home 
             touch despite a rocketlike rise to some of the most 
             powerful positions in the Senate.
               ``We used to travel some together, go around the 
             district and to other places. He always would tell me, 
             `Let's get some ice cream; that's my weakness.' Wherever 
             we were, we'd go get it. That was just the way he was,'' 
             said 3rd District U.S. Representative Sonny Montgomery, 
             who served with Stennis for 23 years.
               ``He was one of the stalwarts for the State of 
             Mississippi,'' said State Senator David Jordan of 
             Greenwood, who as an early civil rights supporter found 
             himself on the other side of Stennis' pro-segregation 
             stand.
               ``I would have liked to have seen him more open to all 
             of the State. We didn't always have the access to him that 
             some of the white folks had. But over the years he 
             changed. He became a statesman for all of the people.''
               Former Lt. Governor Evelyn Gandy said Stennis remained 
             in close contact with State officials throughout his stay 
             in Washington. When there was a problem, she said, Stennis 
             would make a point to fix it.
               ``His heart was with the people of Mississippi, and he 
             responded to their needs, and he helped those of us who 
             were elected at the State level to respond to those 
             needs,'' she said.
               Rex Buffington, Stennis' press secretary from 1978 until 
             the Senator retired in 1988, said the key to Stennis' 
             power sprang from his reputation.
               ``A lot of that came from being committed to doing the 
             right thing. A lot of his power and influence came, not 
             just from the positions that he held, but, from the esteem 
             that people held him in,'' Buffington said.
               Buffington said he admired Stennis long before going to 
             work for him, and when he took the job he was concerned 
             that in Washington he would find a man much different from 
             his public reputation.
               ``What I found when I got there was just the opposite. 
             He was an individual who was even greater than that 
             wonderful image,'' he said. ``It was incredible, really, 
             working for a legend, and one who lived up to and even 
             exceeded his reputation.''
               Almost immediately after leaving office, Stennis' health 
             began to seriously fail and he was forced to drop out of 
             all public life, Buffington said.
               ``The Senator that we knew has really been gone for a 
             while,'' he said. ``It was as though when he left the 
             Senate he finally let go.''
               Buffington now serves as executive director of the 
             Stennis Center for Public Service at Mississippi State 
             University. It was created by Congress in 1988 to attract 
             young people to public service careers.
               Former Governor William Winter campaigned for Stennis 
             when Stennis first ran for the Senate in 1947. He later 
             served as his legislative assistant.
               ``he represented, to me, what a public leader ought to 
             be like,'' Winter said. ``His total commitment to public 
             service, his integrity, his impeccable personal character 
             and his qualities as a true gentleman.''
               ``During his service in the United States Senate, 
             Mississippi had one of the most effective and highly 
             respected Senators that this or any other State ever 
             had,'' Winter said. ``We shall not soon see his like 
             again.''
               Others echo Winter's assessment.
               ``He truly was a man of great stature. He will long be 
             remembered as one of the finest Senators Mississippi ever 
             produced,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran, a former 
             colleague. ``He never said anything bad about anybody else 
             and looked for the good in others. He was appreciated for 
             that. People noticed that.''
               Former Governor Ray Mabus, currently ambassador to Saudi 
             Arabia, called Stennis ``a statesman for the ages.''
                                          a
                       [The Commercial Appeal, April 24, 1995]
                 Mississippi's Stennis, `Mr. Integrity,' Dies at 93
                      (By William C. Bayne and Sarah A. Derks)
                     elected in 1947, he never lost an election
               Former Senator John Cornelius Stennis, who spent four 
             decades in the Senate exercising vast influence over 
             America's military, died Sunday. The Mississippi Democrat 
             was 93.
               Stennis died about 3:30 p.m. at St. Dominic Hospital in 
             Jackson, MS, where he had been taken several days ago for 
             pneumonia, said his son, John Hampton Stennis.
               Stennis earned a reputation in Washington for fairness 
             and finesse that landed him delicate committee assignments 
             and close association with eight U.S. Presidents. But his 
             opposition to integration blotted his record.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS). ``He 
             was truly a man of great stature. We have suffered a great 
             loss.''
               Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice, who called Stennis 
             ``a key fixture in America's winning the Cold War,'' also 
             said the former Senator will be greatly missed.
               ``All of Mississippi mourns for Senator John C. Stennis, 
             one of the outstanding Americans ever to serve in the 
             United States Senate,'' Fordice said. ``His service to 
             this State was long and faithful and he enjoyed national 
             prominence as well.''
               The Senator's body will lie in state Tuesday from 10 
             a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson and 
             from 4-6 p.m. at the DeKalb. Graveside services will be at 
             11 a.m. Wednesday at Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb.
               It was once said that Stennis was held in such high 
             regard by his Senate colleagues that his integrity was 
             ``considered independently of his constituency, his 
             political philosophy or his voting record.''
               Stennis, revered as ``Mr. Integrity,'' and ``The 
             Judge,'' overcame personal tragedy to continue public 
             service. He survived a near-fatal attack by gunmen who 
             attempted to rob him in front of his Washington home on 
             January 30, 1973. The gunmen shot him twice in the abdomen 
             and left him to die. He was 71 at the time and his 
             recovery included a hospital stay of more than four 
             months.
               Coy Hines Stennis, his wife of 52 years, died in 1983. 
             In 1984, he lost his left leg to cancer and had to use a 
             wheelchair.
               As chairman of both the Armed Services Committee and the 
             defense subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee 
             during the 1970s, Stennis wielded immeasurable influence.
               Stennis was by no means a traditionist in Southern 
             politics. His 1947 special-election campaign to fill the 
             unexpired term of the late Senator Theodore G. Bilbo's 
             seat differed radically from the type to which Southerners 
             had become accustomed. He did not mention his opponents or 
             hurl accusations at them.
               He was best known in the Senate press gallery for his 
             booming baritone, which often was heard crying, ``Mr. 
             President, may we have order?'' The request usually 
             resulted in an instant hush.
               Stennis had a mixed record on equal rights. He condemned 
             the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation decision, 
             and in 1975 he voted against extending the Voting Rights 
             Act. But in 1983 he switched and voted for its extension.
               He later said he always supported the advancement of all 
             races. He argued that the 1954 ruling had forced the South 
             to desegregate its schools but not the North.
               His argument won support from several liberal advocates, 
             including Senator Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT), who conceded in 
             a Senate speech that the North was guilty of ``monumental 
             hypocrisy.''
               The so-called Stennis Amendment, passed in 1972, 
             requires school desegregation policies to be ``applied 
             uniformly in all regions of the United States.''
               In the 1975 debate over the Voting Rights Act, Stennis 
             renewed his theme against regionalized federal laws. He 
             called the law ``a monstrosity which never should have 
             been passed,'' and added, ``if we are to have such a law, 
             it should be applicable nationwide and not just to seven 
             States chosen on the basis of arbitrary criteria to ensure 
             their inclusion.''
               The Voting Rights Act, first enacted in 1965, applies 
             only to Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South 
             Carolina, Virginia and 39 counties in North Carolina.
               Stennis was born on August 3, 1901, the son of Hampton 
             Howell Stennis and Cornelia Adams Stennis. He graduated 
             from Mississippi State University in 1923 and received his 
             law degree from University of Virginia in 1928.
               He entered Mississippi politics quickly thereafter, 
             serving in the State House of Representatives from 1928 to 
             1932 before joining the district attorney's office.
               Stennis was prosecuting attorney for the 16th Judicial 
             District from 1931 to 1937 and a circuit court judge until 
             1947.
               Stennis was first elected November 4, 1947, in that 
             special election to fill the unexpired term of the late 
             Bilbo. He was overwhelmingly re-elected in 1952, 1958, 
             1964, 1970, 1976 and 1982, when he indicated to supporters 
             that he was running his last political campaign. He never 
             lost an election.
               His closest election was in 1982 when, for the first 
             time in his career Stennis was opposed by a Republican, 
             Yazoo City attorney Haley Barbour. Stennis won that race 
             with 64 percent of the vote.
               In 1929, he married the former Coy Hines of New Albany, 
             MS. The couple lived in a two-story Northwest Washington 
             home. They rarely went out and occasionally on Saturday 
             mornings, she would prepare one of his favorite meals; 
             country ham and eggs with cornbread and melted cheese.
               His wife's death was a crushing loss for the Senator. 
             ``She always carried her part of the load and was a great 
             help to me,'' Stennis said at the time.
               In 1965, Stennis was given the chairmanship of the newly 
             formed Senate Ethics Committee. The panel's first 
             unpleasant duty was the case of Senator Thomas J. Dodd (D-
             CT), who was accused of campaign fund finagling. Stennis 
             and the committee went to great lengths to give Dodd, now 
             deceased, a chance to defend himself, but in the end, 
             recommended censure.
               Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR), later remarked: ``Some of 
             us freshmen were sitting around once during the Dodd 
             hearings and we agreed that if we found ourselves charged 
             with some terrible crime and if we could pick our judge, 
             we'd pick John Stennis to judge us.''
               In 1954, during Stennis' first full term, the 
             Mississippian became the first Democrat to ask for censure 
             of the late Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-WI). If the 
             Senate approved of McCarthy's tactics in hunting 
             Communists and other subversives, said Stennis, 
             ``something big and fine will have gone from this 
             chamber.''
               Stennis used his respect and standing among his 
             colleagues to battle for the preservation of the 
             Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway project. In 1980, he called 
             in his markers from other Senators, asking them to vote to 
             maintain funding levels on the $1.8 billion project.
               Stennis was largely successful in his efforts, despite 
             considerable carping from Senators who called the project 
             one of the greatest pork-barrel schemes in history.
               In 1974, when President Richard Nixon's administration 
             was foundering in the Watergate morass, Stennis praised 
             Nixon as a ``courageous President,'' citing Nixon's 
             successes in foreign policy.
               A pillar in the Presbyterian Church, Stennis founded in 
             the Senate what became known as the ``Wednesday morning 
             prayer breakfast group.'' It consisted of 20 Senators--
             Democrats and Republicans--who have breakfast and hold 
             informal religious observances when the Senate is in 
             session.
               The Senator, who rarely missed a Senate session because 
             of illness, always maintained his weight at a trim 175 
             pounds and swam and exercised regularly in the Senate 
             gymnasium. Stennis generally shunned Washington's cocktail 
             circuit, but enjoyed an occasional scotch and soda. He 
             also loved baseball, and before the old Washington 
             Senators fled to Dallas, he often would slip out to the 
             ball park.
               After his retirement, Stennis moved to the Mississippi 
             State University campus in Starkville, which also is the 
             home of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government and 
             the Stennis Center for Public Service, created by 
             Congress.
               Mississippi State University created the John C. Stennis 
             Chair of Political Science in 1971 with funds donated by 
             the Senator and his friends. Many of his personal letters 
             and public papers are housed at the university.
               Stennis held several honorary degrees and was a member 
             of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Alpha Delta (legal) and Alpha Gamma 
             Rho fraternities. He was a Presbyterian, a Mason, and a 
             member of the Lions Club and the Mississippi and American 
             bar associations.
               Also named for the Senator is NASA's National Space 
             Technology Laboratory in southern Mississippi. John C. 
             Stennis Space Center tests rocket motors.
               ``How would I like to be remembered? I haven't thought 
             about that a whole lot,'' Stennis said in a 1985 
             interview. ``You couldn't give me a finer compliment than 
             just to say, `He did his best.' ''
               Stennis is survived by his son, John Hampton Stennis, a 
             Jackson lawyer, and his daughter, Margaret Womble. The 
             family requests that donations be made to an educational, 
             charitable or religious group of choice.
                                          a
              [From the Daily Leader (Brookhaven, Mississippi), April 
                                      24, 1995]
                   Once-Powerful Senator, John Stennis Dead at 93
                                (By Stephen Hawkins)
               JACKSON--John Cornelius Stennis, a Mississippi Democrat 
             who trained generations of Senators in the ways of 
             Washington, opposed virtually all civil rights legislation 
             and staunchly supported the Vietnam War, died Sunday. He 
             was 93.
               Stennis died at St. Dominic Hospital, where he had been 
             taken several days ago for pneumonia, said his son John 
             Hampton Stennis.
               During 41 years in the Senate, Stennis earned a 
             reputation for fairness and finesse that landed him 
             delicate committee assignments and close associations with 
             eight U.S. Presidents.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS).
               As chairman of both the Senate Armed Services Committee 
             and the defense subcommittee of the Appropriations 
             Committee in the 1970s, Stennis wielded more clout over 
             military matters than perhaps any civilian but the 
             President.
               ``If there is one thing I'm unyielding and unbending on, 
             it is that we must have the very best weapons,'' Stennis 
             once said.
               When he retired in 1988, Stennis was the Senate's oldest 
             member, and had served longer than all but one other--Carl 
             Hayden of Arizona, who retired in 1969.
               Nicknamed the ``conscience of the Senate'' for his work 
             on the Senate's code of ethics and his religious 
             convictions, Stennis overcame personal tragedy to continue 
             public service.
               He was wounded by robbers and left bleeding on the 
             sidewalk near his northwest Washington home in 1973. Coy 
             Hines Stennis, his wife of 52 years, died in 1983. And in 
             1984, he lost his left leg to cancer, and had to use a 
             wheelchair.
               ``Discouraged? I suppose everybody's had his ups and 
             downs. But I've never surrendered,'' Stennis said in 1984.
               Although Stennis never made racial issues his primary 
             focus in the Senate, he did support segregation and was a 
             staunch member of the Southern wing of his party.
               He condemned the Supreme Court's 1954 school 
             desegregation decision and voted against virtually all 
             civil rights legislation. But in 1983, he voted for an 
             extension of the Voting Rights Act.
               ``I didn't want to go back to the days of 
             misunderstanding,'' he told The Associated Press later. 
             ``I didn't want to turn around and go back. I always 
             rejoiced to see blacks or anyone else have better 
             opportunities.''
               After becoming Armed Services chairman in 1969, Stennis 
             firmly supported President Nixon's requests to extend the 
             Vietnam War.
               In the war's waning days, he cosponsored the war Powers 
             Act of 1973, which sets limits on a President's power to 
             commit American forces to combat without congressional 
             consent. But a decade later, he opposed forcing President 
             Reagan to abide by the law in order to keep Marine 
             peacekeepers in Lebanon.
               Stennis was born August 3, 1901, in DeKalb and graduated 
             from Mississippi State University in 1923 before attending 
             the University of Virginia Law School.
               He began his public service in 1928 in the Mississippi 
             Legislature, then served as a district attorney and 
             circuit judge before joining the U.S. Senate.
               Stennis' body will lie in state Tuesday at the Old 
             Capitol Museum in Jackson and later at the DeKalb 
             Presbyterian Church. Graveside services will be Wednesday 
             at Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb, his hometown.
              [From the Oxford Eagle (Oxford, Mississippi), April 24, 
                                        1995]
                        Mississippians Remember John Stennis
                                  (By Jonny Miles)
               John Cornelius Stennis, 93, a staunch proponent and 
             defendant of Mississippi throughout his 41 years in the 
             United States Senate, died Sunday of pneumonia at St. 
             Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital.
               According to published reports, Stennis had been 
             hospitalized since Thursday. Since retiring from the 
             Senate in 1988, plagued with medical problems (including 
             the removal of his cancerous left leg), the former Senator 
             had spent the last years of his life in failing health at 
             St. Catherine's Village nursing home in Madison.
               ``The people of Mississippi have lost one of the 
             greatest statesmen in the history of our State,'' said 
             Senator Trent Lott, who succeeded Stennis in 1988. 
             ``Senator Stennis was a tireless public servant who loved 
             Mississippi and his country. We will remember his gentle 
             manners, his dignity in adversity, and his determination 
             always to plow a straight furrow.''
               Stennis' political religion, he remarked back in 1947, 
             was to plow a straight furrow right down to the end of his 
             row.
               ``He was the epitome of a statesman,'' Lott said. 
             ``Mississippi was indeed fortunate that he was ours.''
               Senator Thad Cochran, who served 8 years with Stennis in 
             the Senate, called the late lawmaker a ``great Senator in 
             every way. He was effective, respected and deeply 
             appreciated by the people of Mississippi. He was truly a 
             man of great stature. We have suffered a great loss.''
               Stennis, a Kemper County native and Mississippi A&M 
             College graduate, began his four decades in Washington in 
             1947 by defeating five opponents in an election to fill 
             the vacancy caused by fervent segregationist Senator 
             Theodore G. Bilbo. In his long-held seat in the Senate--
             Stennis served longer than any Senator except Arizona's 
             Carl Hayden--the country lawyer from DeKalb was both 
             witness and participant in historic changes in the Nation.
               Very frequently, Mississippi--and Stennis--were at the 
             forefront of those changes. Though Stennis ardently 
             avoided the race-baiting politics of his predecessor, the 
             desegregation issue became inescapable as Stennis entered 
             his second term as Senator. In 1965, he helped draft the 
             Southern Manifesto, a letter of protest against the 
             growing tide of integrationist politics in the South.
               When integration became law, however, Stennis' 
             sympathies changed. Dr. Marty Wiseman, director of the 
             John C. Stennis Institute for Government at Mississippi 
             State University, said Stennis adhered strictly to the 
             Constitution.
               ``He appeared, in the early days, established in his 
             position (favoring) State's rights,'' Wiseman said. But 
             the Senator ``abhorred any type of violent reaction.''
               Some civil rights activists saw Stennis opposition to 
             racial violence as a moderate stance. The Senator avoided 
             civil rights battles and, as often as he could, avoided 
             racial issues altogether. By 1982, he had softened to the 
             point of voting for an extension of the 1965 Voting Rights 
             Act.
               ``I didn't want to go back to the days of 
             misunderstanding,'' he told The Associated Press later. 
             ``I didn't want to turn around and go back. I always 
             rejoiced to see blacks or anyone else have better 
             opportunities.''
               ``He seemed to always have a set of principles 
             regardless of the politics,'' explained Wiseman. ``I don't 
             recall him doing anything for political expediency.''
               Stennis was considered a formidable power in the U.S. 
             Senate for his chairmanships of both the Senate Armed 
             Services Committee and the defense subcommittee of the 
             Appropriations Committee in the 1970s. He was also 
             afforded respect for his unyielding ethical stances, which 
             garnered him the tag of ``the conscience of the Senate.''
               ``He always had the idea that the people who put him 
             there expected him to be honorable,'' Wiseman said. ``He 
             wanted to give the taxpayers a dollar's worth of service 
             for a dollar's worth of work. He treated it like a trust. 
             He was the pattern that the rest of the cloth was cut 
             from.''
               Stennis' body will lie in state Tuesday at the Old 
             Capitol Museum in Jackson and later at the DeKalb 
             Presbyterian Church. Graveside services will be Wednesday 
             at Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb.
                                          a
              [From the Daily Leader (Brookhaven, Mississippi), April 
                                      24, 1995]
                          Leaders Say He Was True Statesman
                                   (Staff Writer)
               JACKSON, MS (AP)--Current and former Mississippi 
             political leaders are mourning the death of former U.S. 
             Senator John C. Stennis, whom they are calling a true 
             statesman.
               ``He was one of the great statesmen for our Nation in 
             the 20th century,'' U.S. Representative G.V. ``Sonny'' 
             Montgomery, (D-MS), said. ``I believe history will record 
             Senator Stennis as a true son of the South.''
               Stennis, who retired in 1988 after 41 years in the U.S. 
             Senate, died Sunday of pneumonia. He was 93.
               ``John Stennis was a statesman for the ages,'' said 
             former Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus, now the U.S. 
             Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. ``The Mississippi gentleman 
             and close friend will be greatly missed by every 
             generation in our State. Most of all we'll miss his 
             easygoing nature and his wise legislative skill.''
               Former Governor William Winter, who once served as the 
             Senator's legislative director in Washington, said Stennis 
             was his ``political hero and represented for me what a 
             public leader ought to be like. We shall not see his likes 
             again.''
               Stennis began his public service in 1928 in the 
             Mississippi Legislature, then served as a district 
             attorney and circuit judge before joining the U.S. Senate, 
             where he served as chairman of both the Armed Services 
             Committee and the defense subcommittee of the 
             Appropriations Committee during the 1970s.
               Current Governor Kirk Fordice said, ``All of Mississippi 
             mourns for Senator John C. Stennis, one of the outstanding 
             Americans ever to serve in the U.S. Senate. His service to 
             this State was long and faithful.
               ``As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he 
             was a key fixture in America's winning the Cold War. He 
             will be greatly missed,'' Fordice said.
               Montgomery, first elected to Congress in 1966, said one 
             of the last aircraft carriers planned for the U.S. ``for 
             quite a while'' will be commissioned in Virginia in 
             December and will bear the Stennis name.
               Montgomery, who served in Congress with Stennis for 23 
             years, hopes the younger generation in Mississippi will 
             learn about ``a legend in our State. He's been out of 
             office seven years and there is a tendency to forget. They 
             shouldn't forget John Stennis.''
               U.S. Senator Thad Cochran called it an honor to serve in 
             Congress with Stennis.
               ``He truly was a man of great stature. He will long be 
             remembered as one of the finest Senators Mississippi has 
             ever produced,'' said Cochran (R-MS). ``He never said 
             anything bad about anybody else and looked for the good in 
             others. He was appreciated for that. People noticed 
             that.''
                                          a
                     [From the Associated Press, April 24, 1995]
                           Ex-Senator John C. Stennis Dies
                                     (Editorial)
               Former Senator John Cornelius Stennis was remembered as 
             a man who wielded great power over military policy and 
             Senate ethics but opposed virtually all civil rights 
             legislation.
               Stennis died Sunday at St. Dominic Hospital, where he 
             had been taken several days ago for pneumonia, said his 
             son, John Hampton Stennis. He was 93.
               During 41 years in the Senate, the Mississippi Democrat 
             earned a reputation for fairness and finesse that landed 
             him delicate committee assignments and close associations 
             with eight U.S. Presidents.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS).
               As chairman of both the Senate Armed Services Committee 
             and the Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations 
             Committee in the 1970s, Stennis wielded more clout over 
             military matters than perhaps any civilian but the 
             President. He was a strong supporter of the Vietnam War.
               ``If there is one thing I'm unyielding and unbending on, 
             it is that we must have the very best weapons,'' Stennis 
             once said.
               When he retired in 1988, Stennis was the Senate's oldest 
             member, and had served longer than all but one other, Carl 
             Hayden of Arizona, who retired in 1969 after 42 years in 
             the Senate.
               Nicknamed the ``conscience of the Senate'' for his work 
             on the Senate's code of ethics and his religious 
             convictions, Stennis overcame personal tragedy to continue 
             public service.
               He was wounded by robbers and left bleeding on the 
             sidewalk near his northwest Washington home in 1973. Coy 
             Hines Stennis, his wife of 52 years, died in 1983. And in 
             1984, he lost his left leg to cancer, and had to use a 
             wheelchair.
               ``Discouraged? I suppose everybody's had his ups and 
             downs. But I've never surrendered,'' Stennis said in 1984.
               Although Stennis never made racial issues his primary 
             focus in the Senate, he did support segregation and was a 
             staunch member of the Southern wing of his party.
               He condemned the Supreme Court's 1954 school 
             desegregation decision and voted against virtually all 
             civil rights legislation. But in 1983, he voted for an 
             extension of the Voting Rights Act.
               ``I didn't want to go back to the days of 
             misunderstanding,'' he told The Associated Press later. 
             ``I didn't want to turn around and go back. I always 
             rejoiced to see blacks or anyone else have better 
             opportunities.''
               After becoming Armed Services chairman in 1969, Stennis 
             firmly supported President Nixon's requests to extend the 
             Vietnam War.
               In the war's waning days, he co-sponsored the War Powers 
             Act of 1973, which sets limits on a President's power to 
             commit American forces to combat without Congressional 
             consent. But a decade later, he opposed forcing President 
             Reagan to abide by the law in order to keep Marine 
             peacekeepers in Lebanon.
               Stennis was born August 3, 1901, in DeKalb and graduated 
             from Mississippi State University in 1923 before attending 
             the University of Virginia Law School.
               He began his public service in 1928 in the Mississippi 
             Legislature, then served as a district attorney and 
             circuit judge before joining the U.S. Senate.
               Stennis' body will lie in state Tuesday at the Old 
             Capitol Museum in Jackson and later at the DeKalb 
             Presbyterian Church. Graveside services will be Wednesday 
             at Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb, his hometown.
                                          a
                     [From the Washington Post, April 24, 1995]
             Former Senator John Stennis, Defense Authority, Dies at 93
                                (By Richard Pearson)
               John C. Stennis, 93, the courtly and conservative 
             Mississippi Democrat who during more than 40 years in the 
             U.S. Senate became one of its most powerful members, died 
             April 23 at a hospital in Jackson, MS. He had been 
             admitted several days before with pneumonia.
               Senator Stennis was a state circuit court judge little 
             known in Washington and something of an authority on 
             farming when he was elected to the Senate in 1947, saying 
             that he was a segregationist who would work to preserve 
             ``the Southern way of life.''
               Before he left office in January 1989, he had served as 
             the Senate's President Pro Tempore and had been chairman 
             of both its Armed Services and Appropriations committees. 
             Over the years, he also had been chosen by his colleagues 
             for other assignments, often difficult ones that brought 
             him little thanks outside the Capitol.
               He served on the committee that investigated the conduct 
             of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-WI) in 1954. He became 
             the first Senate Democrat to take on McCarthy, accusing 
             him of using ``slush and slime'' in pursuit of ever-
             elusive communists.
               He was chosen in 1965 as the first chairman of the 
             Select Committee on Standards and Conduct. He wrote the 
             Senate's first code of ethics. And he served on the Senate 
             committee that investigated President Richard M. Nixon's 
             involvement in Watergate.
               But it was as Armed Services chairman from 1969 to 1981 
             that he wielded vast influence over the country and vast 
             power within the Senate. If he ran a tight ship, he did it 
             with fairness and integrity, as well as sagacity.
               Upon learning of Senator Stennis's death, Senator Thad 
             Cochran (R-MS) hailed him as ``a great Senator in every 
             way. He was effective, respected and deeply appreciated by 
             the people in Mississippi. He was truly a man of great 
             stature. We have suffered a great loss.''
               Testament to his grit were two events that involved 
             personal adversity. In 1973, while walking near his 
             Washington home, he was shot and left for dead by robbers. 
             In 1984, he lost a leg to cancer and could return to work 
             only in a wheelchair. On both occasions, he went back to 
             work well before his physicians thought it likely and 
             returned to standing ovations.
               He won a special election to the Senate as a moderate 
             segregationist alternative to two white supremacist 
             candidates. He was an author of the 1954 ``Southern 
             Manifesto,'' which denounced the Brown vs. Board of 
             Education Supreme Court decision that outlawed racial 
             segregation in public schools, and voted against all civil 
             rights legislation until 1982, when he announced his 
             support for extension of the Voting Rights Act. He opposed 
             civil rights with some decorum, unlike his less-restrained 
             longtime Senate colleague from Mississippi, James O. 
             Eastland.
               Senator Stennis often confined himself to taking mildly 
             sly shots at northern Senators for what he called their 
             hypocrisy in denouncing the South while glossing over 
             racial problems in their own States. He did not use 
             ``race'' as a campaign issue.
               On defense issues, he changed little over the years. He 
             was a Senator who had come to office at the birth of the 
             Cold War and the beginning of a long arms race. He never 
             doubted the wisdom of having a national defense that was 
             second to none in the world, and he supported every 
             President on requests concerning national security.
               Before U.S. troops were engaged in Vietnam, he cautioned 
             against involvement in combat operations, taking the 
             Senate floor to warn that the eventual result might not be 
             victory but a painful choice between endless conflict or 
             running. Yet once U.S. forces were committed, he supported 
             the action to the bitter end.
               His influence was enormous. He not only was chairman of 
             the Armed Services Committee but he also headed the 
             Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, giving him double-
             barreled influence over defense spending.
               He was no puppet of either the Defense Department or the 
             White House. He insisted on value for dollar from armed 
             services and defense contractors. In 1971, he joined 
             Senators who introduced legislation that required 
             Congressional authority for the President to maintain 
             military combat operations after a specified period.
               ``The decision to make war is too big a decision for one 
             mind to make and too awesome for one man to bear,'' he 
             said. ``There must be a collective judgment given and a 
             collective responsibility shared.''
               In the 1970s, the country and many of the younger 
             Senators in his own party seemed to be in revolt against 
             the beliefs if not the person of Senator Stennis. He lost 
             an important turf battle when a separate intelligence 
             oversight committee was established, outside the control 
             of the Armed Services Committee.
               In 1982, perhaps sensing that illness and age were 
             slowing the Senator down, Haley Barbour, now chairman of 
             the Republican National Committee, mounted a well-
             financed, intelligent and vigorous campaign for the seat. 
             Since 1947, Senator Stennis had run largely unopposed, and 
             many wondered if he would even run for reelection. Senator 
             Stennis ran, carrying all but two counties with 64 percent 
             of the vote.
               His last term seemed at times like a long valedictory. 
             He mostly declined to speak about civil rights issues, 
             saying the climate had changed since he came to office and 
             saying he always had favored the advancement of both 
             races.
               He was the last of the true Southern Democratic barons 
             to many. Despite physical ailments, he would arrive at his 
             Capitol office about 8 a.m. and remain at the Capitol 
             until the Senate adjourned for the day. Quiet and frail, 
             he struggled out of his wheelchair to address the Senate 
             or when he met a lady.
               He also relished looking out for Mississippi. He would 
             remark with pride on his role in securing the construction 
             of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, which was opposed by 
             nearly everyone not living in Mississippi and was a mark 
             of his clout.
               John Cornelius Stennis was born August 3, 1901, on a 
             farm in Kemper County, MS, the youngest of seven children. 
             He graduated from what is now Mississippi State University 
             and the University of Virginia law school. He was elected 
             to Phi Beta Kappa.
               After graduating from law school in 1928, he began the 
             private practice of law in DeKalb and won election to the 
             State House of Representatives. In 1931, he became a 
             district attorney. He was appointed a State circuit court 
             judge in 1937 and held that post until entering the 
             Senate. He won a special election on November 4, 1947, to 
             fill the seat left vacant by the death of Senator Theodore 
             G. Bilbo (D).
               In a 1985 interview, Senator Stennis said: ``How would I 
             like to be remembered? I haven't thought about that a 
             whole lot. You couldn't give me a finer compliment than 
             just to say, `He did his best.' ''
               Senator Stennis's wife of 52 years, Coy Hines Stennis, 
             died in 1983. Survivors include a son and a daughter.
                                          a
                     [From the Phoenix Gazette, April 24, 1995]
              Ex-Senator From Mississippi Dies at 93; Stennis Wielded 
                          Clout Over U.S. Military Affairs
                                     (Editorial)
               Former Senator John Stennis, a courtly Mississippi 
             Democrat who exercised vast influence over America's 
             military during his four decades in the Senate, died 
             Sunday. He was 93.
               Stennis died about 3:30 p.m. at St. Dominic Hospital, 
             where he had been taken several days ago for pneumonia, 
             said his son John Hampton Stennis.
               Stennis earned a reputation in Washington for fairness 
             and finesse that landed him delicate committee assignments 
             and close association with eight Presidents. But his 
             opposition to integration blotted his record.
               Stennis joined the Senate in 1947. At the time of his 
             retirement in 1988, he was its oldest member.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS). ``He 
             was truly a man of great stature. We have suffered a great 
             loss.''
               Stennis, nicknamed the ``conscience of the Senate'' for 
             his work on the Senate's code of ethics and strict 
             religious convictions, overcame tragedy to continue 
             service.
               He was wounded by robbers near his Washington home in 
             1973.
               Coy Hines Stennis, his wife of 52 years, died in 1983. 
             And in 1984, he lost his left leg to cancer, and had to 
             use a wheelchair.
               ``Discouraged? I suppose everybody's had his ups and 
             downs. But I've never surrendered,'' Stennis said then.
               Stennis, serving as chairman of both the Armed Services 
             Committee and the Defense Subcommittee of the 
             Appropriations Committee during the 1970s, wielded more 
             clout over military matters than perhaps any civilian 
             except the President.
               Though he stood for a tough military, Stennis did not 
             always back Presidential military policy.
               He was a leading backer of the Vietnam War. However, in 
             the war's waning days, he co-sponsored legislation to set 
             limits on a President's power to commit American forces to 
             combat without Congressional consent.
               He condemned the Supreme Court's 1954 school 
             desegregation decision, but in 1983 he switched and voted 
             for an extension of the Voting Rights Act.
               Survivors include his son, a Jackson lawyer, and his 
             daughter, Margaret Womble.
                                          a
                 [From the Bergen New Jersey Record, April 24, 1995]
                            John Stennis, Former Senator
                            (By the News Service Reports)
               Former Senator John C. Stennis (D-MS), a deeply 
             religious defense hawk who served four decades in the 
             Senate and exercised a major influence on U.S. military 
             policy, died of pneumonia Sunday afternoon in Jackson, MS. 
             He was 93.
               Nicknamed the ``Conscience of the Senate'' for his 
             personal rectitude and his efforts to shape the Senate's 
             code of ethics, he entered the Senate in 1947 and retired 
             in 1988. Senator Stennis had undergone cardiovascular 
             surgery in 1983 and a year later had his left leg 
             amputated because of a malignant tumor in his upper thigh.
               As chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee for 
             12 years, beginning in 1969, Senator Stennis played a key 
             role in fighting deep cuts in the defense budget. He 
             opposed judicial efforts to desegregate public schools in 
             1954, but three decades later he supported extending the 
             Voting Rights Act.
               Close to eight Presidents, Senator Stennis was the last 
             of the classic Southern gentlemen who so forcefully shaped 
             the character of the mid-century Senate. He was crusty yet 
             courtly, a stern moralist and a man of impeccable 
             integrity with an almost mystical devotion to the Senate.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected, and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS), said Sunday. 
             ``He was truly a man of great stature.''
               Senator Stennis himself was more modest about his place 
             in history.
               ``How would I like to be remembered? I haven't thought 
             about that a whole lot,'' he mused in a 1985 interview. 
             ``You couldn't give me a finer compliment than just to 
             say, He did his best.''
               Testament to his grit were two events that involved 
             personal adversity. In 1973, while walking near his 
             Washington home, he was shot and left for dead by robbers. 
             In 1984, after losing his leg to cancer, he could return 
             to work only in a wheelchair. On both occasions, he went 
             back to work well before his physicians thought it likely 
             and returned to standing ovations from his Senate 
             colleagues.
               Senator Stennis displayed a different kind of toughness 
             in 1954, when he served on the Select Committee that 
             probed charges against the late Senator Joseph R. McCarthy 
             (R-WI), and became the first Senate Democrat to call for 
             censure of the Wisconsin Senator. Though Senator Stennis 
             was a dedicated conservative, he was offended by 
             McCarthy's tactics in pursuit of ever-elusive communists.
               During the censure debate, Senator Stennis rallied 
             support from many colleagues who had been afraid to attack 
             McCarthy. In a vigorous speech, he accused McCarthy of 
             besmirching the Senate's good name with ``slush and 
             slime.''
               That same year, 1954, Senator Stennis was one of the 
             first members of Congress to caution against U.S. 
             involvement in Indochina.
               In a Senate speech delivered when the Eisenhower 
             Administration was considering intervention to prevent a 
             French disaster in Vietnam, Senator Stennis presciently 
             warned that committing U.S. ground forces could lead to 
             ``a long, costly, and indecisive war.''
               Yet 11 years later, when President Lyndon Johnson made a 
             large-scale commitment to fight in Vietnam, Senator 
             Stennis loyally backed his commander in chief. ``Once the 
             die is cast and once our flag is committed and our boys 
             are sent out to the field, you will find solid support for 
             the war from the South,'' he said.
               He also firmly backed defense spending throughout his 
             career, supporting the Pentagon even when the Vietnam War 
             made weapons procurement unpopular. ``If there is one 
             thing I'm unyielding and unbending on, it is that we must 
             have the very best weapons,'' he once said.
               Senate liberals clashed frequently with Senator Stennis 
             on subjects ranging from defense spending to civil rights, 
             but they invariably praised him for his fairness and 
             courtesy.
               He was an author of the 1954 ``Southern Manifesto,'' 
             which denounced the Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme 
             Court decision that outlawed racial segregation in public 
             schools, and voted against all civil rights legislation 
             until 1982, when he announced his support for extension of 
             the Voting Rights Act. He opposed civil rights with some 
             decorum, unlike his less-restrained longtime Senate 
             colleague from Mississippi, James O. Eastland.
                                          a
                   [From the Rocky Mountain News, April 24, 1995]
                            ``Conscience of Senate'' Dies
                              (By the Associated Press)
               Former Senator John C. Stennis a courtly Mississippi 
             Democrat who exercised vast influence over America's 
             military during his four decades in the Senate, died 
             Sunday.
               Stennis, 93, died around 3:30 p.m. at St. Dominic 
             Hospital, where he had been taken several days ago for 
             pneumonia, said his son, John Hampton Stennis.
               Stennis joined the Senate in 1947. At the time of his 
             retirement in 1988, he was its oldest member. He was 
             nicknamed the ``conscience of the Senate'' for his work on 
             the Senate's code of ethics and his strict religious 
             convictions.
               Serving as chairman of the Armed Services Committee and 
             the Appropriations Committee's Defense Subcommittee in the 
             1970s, Stennis wielded more clout over military matters 
             than perhaps any civilian except the President.
               He was a consistent advocate of the need for a strong 
             military.
               ``Trouble can come from anywhere,'' he once said. 
             ``We've got to be ready for instant action.''
               Stennis did not always back Presidential military 
             policy. He was a leading backer of the Vietnam War, but in 
             the war's waning days, he co-sponsored legislation to set 
             limits on a President's power to commit U.S. forces to 
             combat without congressional consent.
               A decade later, Stennis opposed using that law--the War 
             Powers Act of 1973--to permit President Reagan to keep 
             Marine peacekeeping troops in Lebanon.
                                          a
                 [From the New Jersey Bergen Record, April 24, 1995]
              Former Senator Stennis; at 93; Held Mississippi Seat For 
                                    Four Decades
                                (By the Wire Service)
               Former Senator John C. Stennis, a courtly Mississippi 
             Democrat who exercised vast influence over America's 
             military during his four decades in the U.S. Senate, died 
             Sunday. He was 93.
               Mr. Stennis died about 3:30 p.m. at St. Dominic 
             Hospital, where he had been taken several days ago for 
             treatment of pneumonia, said his son, John Hampton 
             Stennis.
               Mr. Stennis earned a reputation in Washington for 
             fairness and finesse that landed him delicate committee 
             assignments and close association with eight U.S. 
             Presidents. But his opposition to integration blotted his 
             record.
               He joined the Senate in 1947. At the time of his 
             retirement in 1988, he was its oldest member.
               Mr. Stennis, nicknamed the ``conscience of the Senate'' 
             for his work on the Senate's code of ethics and his strict 
             religious convictions, overcame personal tragedy to 
             continue public service.
               He was wounded by robbers and left bleeding on the 
             sidewalk near his northwest Washington home in 1973. 
             President Richard M. Nixon, emerging from Mr. Stennis' 
             hospital room, said the Senator would survive because, 
             ``He's got the will to live in spades.''
               Coy Hines Stennis, his wife of 52 years, died in 1983. 
             And in 1984, he lost his left leg to cancer, and had to 
             use a wheelchair.
               ``Discouraged? I suppose everybody's had his ups and 
             downs. But I've never surrendered,'' he said then.
               Mr. Stennis, serving as chairman of both the Armed 
             Services Committee and the Defense Subcommittee of the 
             Appropriations Committee during the 1970's, wielded more 
             clout over military matters than perhaps any civilian 
             except the President.
               He was a consistent advocate of the need for a strong 
             military.
               ``If there is one thing I'm unyielding and unbending on, 
             it is that we must have the very best weapons,'' he once 
             said.
               After militants in Iran seized the American Embassy and 
             held its employees hostage in late 1979, Mr. Stennis 
             suggested that a fleet of small aircraft carriers be built 
             to counter such crises around the world.
               ``Trouble can come from anywhere now,'' he said. ``We've 
             got to be ready for instant action.''
               Soon after, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and Mr. 
             Stennis called for U.S. military support bases near 
             Mideast oil fields.
               Though he stood for a tough military, Mr. Stennis did 
             not always back presidential military policy.
               He was a leading backer of the Vietnam War. However, in 
             the war's waning days, he co-sponsored legislation to set 
             limits on a President's power to commit American forces to 
             combat without congressional consent.
               A decade later, Mr. Stennis opposed using that law, the 
             War Powers Act of 1973, to permit President Ronald Reagan 
             to keep Marine peacekeeping troops in Lebanon.
               He condemned the Supreme Court's 1954 school 
             desegregation decision, but in 1983 he switched and voted 
             for an extension of the Voting Rights Act.
               He later said he always supported the advancement of all 
             races.
               Mr. Stennis was born August 3, 1901, in DeKalb, MS, and 
             graduated from Mississippi State University in 1923 before 
             attending the University of Virginia Law School.
               He began his public service in 1928 in the Mississippi 
             Legislature, then served as a district attorney and 
             circuit judge before joining the U.S. Senate.
               After his retirement, Mr. Stennis moved to the 
             Mississippi State University campus in Starkville, which 
             also is the home of the John C. Stennis Institute of 
             Government and the Stennis Center for Public Service, 
             created by Congress.
               ``I do believe the most important thing I can do now is 
             to help young people understand the past and prepare for 
             the future,'' Mr. Stennis said in 1990 while serving as 
             executive in residence at the university. ``As long as I 
             have energy left, I want to use it to the benefit of 
             students.''
               Also named for the Senator is NASA's National Space 
             Technology Laboratory in southern Mississippi. The John C. 
             Stennis Space Center tests rocket motors.
               ``How would I like to be remembered? I haven't thought 
             about that a whole lot,'' Mr. Stennis said in a 1985 
             interview. ``You couldn't give me a finer compliment than 
             just to say, He did his best.
                                          a
             [From the Rhode Island Providence Journal-Bulletin, April 
                                      24, 1995]
              Ex-Senator John Stennis, 93 Dies; Served in Congress For 
                                      41 Years
                                (By Associated Press)
               Former Senator John C. Stennis, 93, a courtly 
             Mississippi Democrat who exercised vast influence over 
             America's military during his four decades in the Senate, 
             died yesterday at St. Dominic Hospital, where he had been 
             taken several days ago for pneumonia.
               Stennis earned a reputation in Washington for fairness 
             and finesse that landed him delicate committee assignments 
             and close association with eight U.S. Presidents. But his 
             opposition to integration blotted his record.
               Stennis joined the Senate in 1947. At the time of his 
             retirement in 1988, he was its oldest member.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS). ``He 
             was truly a man of great stature. We have suffered a great 
             loss.''
               Stennis, nicknamed the ``conscience of the Senate'' for 
             his work on the Senate's code of ethics and strict 
             religious convictions, overcame personal tragedy to 
             continue public service.
               He was wounded by robbers and left bleeding on the 
             sidewalk near his northwest Washington home in 1973. Then-
             President Richard M. Nixon, emerging from Stennis' 
             hospital room, said the Senator would survive because, 
             ``He's got the will to live in spades.''
               Coy (Hines) Stennis, his wife, died in 1983. And in 
             1984, he lost his left leg to cancer, and had to use a 
             wheelchair.
               ``Discouraged? I suppose everybody's had his ups and 
             downs. But I've never surrendered,'' Stennis said then.
               Stennis, serving as chairman of the Armed Services 
             Committee and the Defense Subcommittee of the 
             Appropriations Committee during the 1970's, wielded more 
             clout over military matters than perhaps any civilian 
             except the President.
               He was a consistent advocate of the need for a strong 
             military.
               ``If there is one thing I'm unyielding and unbending on, 
             it is that we must have the very best weapons,'' he once 
             said.
               He was a leading backer of the Vietnam War. However, in 
             the war's waning days, he co-sponsored legislation to set 
             limits on a President's power to commit American forces to 
             combat without congressional consent.
               A decade later, Stennis opposed using that law--the War 
             Powers Act of 1973--to permit President Ronald Reagan to 
             keep Marine peacekeeping troops in Lebanon.
               He condemned the Supreme Court's 1954 school 
             desegregation decision, but in 1983, he switched and voted 
             for an extension of the Voting Rights Act.
               He later said he always supported the advancement of all 
             races.
               He leaves a son and a daughter.
                                          a
                      [From the New York Times, April 24, 1995]
                 John C. Stennis, 93, Longtime Chairman of Powerful 
                           Committees in the Senate, Dies
                               (By David E. Rosenbaum)
               Senator John C. Stennis, a courtly Mississippi Democrat 
             who served in the Senate longer than all but one other 
             person in history, died today at St. Dominic-Jackson 
             Memorial Hospital in Jackson, MS. He was 93 years old.
               Mr. Stennis died of complications of pneumonia, said Rex 
             Buffington, director of the John C. Stennis Center for 
             Public Service at Mississippi State University in 
             Starkville.
               When he retired on January 3, 1989, Mr. Stennis had been 
             in the Senate 41 years, 1 month and 29 days. Only Carl 
             Hayden of Arizona, who retired in 1969 after 41 years and 
             10 months in the Senate, served longer.
               Although he was President Pro Tempore of the Senate, a 
             largely honorary position given to the Senator in the 
             majority party who has the most seniority, and was 
             chairman of the Appropriations Committee in the 100th 
             Congress, his role in his last years on Capitol Hill was 
             largely that of patriarch and teacher to younger Senators.
               He no longer dominated legislation as he had in the 
             1960's and 1970's, when he was the most influential voice 
             in Congress on military affairs and when, widely respected 
             for his integrity, diligence and judgment, he was called 
             upon time and again to investigate touchy political 
             matters, particularly those that had embarrassed the 
             Senate. It became routine to refer to him as the 
             conscience of the entire institution.
               In many respects, John Stennis was the last of the 
             Senate's Southern barons--Democrats elected from one-party 
             States who gained power through seniority and often 
             wielded it autocratically to block the more liberal 
             initiatives of the Senators from the rest of the country. 
             His support for the military was unswerving, and his 
             advocacy of racial segregation was unalloyed for most of 
             his career.
               But in style and temperament, Senator Stennis was cut 
             from a mold different from most of the other Southerners 
             who came to power shortly after World War II. He did not 
             drink, smoke, swear in public or use racial epithets. 
             Perhaps more important, he changed with the times, began 
             supporting some civil rights measures, and, in his last 
             elections, he ran well among black voters.
               His colleagues from outside the South did not fear him 
             so much as they liked and admired him. At the height of 
             one of the battles over civil rights legislation that 
             occupied the Senate in the 1960's, Senator Paul H. 
             Douglas, Democrat of Illinois, a leader of the faction 
             supporting the measure, declared, ``If I were ever to have 
             to go on trial, I would want John Stennis to be my 
             judge.''
               It was his personal qualities that led Senator Stennis' 
             colleagues to choose him so often to head political 
             inquiries. As early as 1954, when he was a junior Senator, 
             he was named to the committee that investigated charges 
             against Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-WI).
               Eight years later, he was put in charge of an 
             investigation of accusations that the Pentagon was 
             muzzling officers who wanted to speak up against 
             communism. In 1967, he headed the investigation of Senator 
             Thomas J. Dodd (D-CT), that led to Senator Dodd's censure 
             for misuse of funds and to a new code of ethics for the 
             Senate.
               In 1973, President Richard M. Nixon took advantage of 
             Senator Stennis's reputation for integrity and proposed 
             that, instead of turning over the Watergate tapes to the 
             independent prosecutor, he allow the Senator to listen to 
             them and authenticate summaries prepared by the White 
             House.
               Mr. Stennis at first agreed. But when the prosecutor, 
             Archibald Cox, objected to the suggestion and was 
             discharged for his defiance, the Stennis compromise 
             collapsed.
               Mr. Stennis was chairman of the Armed Services Committee 
             at the height of the Vietnam War, and President Nixon 
             relied on him to defend the Administration against 
             countless end-the-war amendments and efforts to cut the 
             Pentagon's budget. More often than not, Mr. Stennis was 
             successful, despite opposition by most of his fellow 
             Democrats.
               Later, when President Jimmy Carter rejected some of the 
             Pentagon's spending requests, Senator Stennis tried to 
             accommodate him, although, personally, he would have 
             preferred a larger military budget.
               Years later, the Senator said in an interview that he 
             never tried to second-guess a President on foreign policy 
             and military matters.
               ``I lean with the President on our system of 
             government,'' he declared, expressing a view that many 
             modern Senators consider old-fashioned. ``Makes no 
             difference who he is. I would back those fellows on a lot 
             of things.''
               While he often counseled young Senators and helped them 
             through the parliamentary maze that the Senate, over time, 
             has constructed for itself, Mr. Stennis in his later years 
             seemed to long for the days when junior Senators bided 
             their time and held their tongues.
               ``I'm not blaming them,'' he once said of his younger 
             colleagues. ``They come here on the average well-educated. 
             But they don't have the maturity, if I may use that term. 
             They don't have the experience in public affairs that the 
             old-timer had. It takes time to mature.''
               John Cornelius Stennis was born on August 3, 1901, in 
             Kemper County in the red clay hills of eastern 
             Mississippi. He was a member of one of the leading 
             families in the rural county. His father was a farmer, but 
             the Stennis' were known as professional people--doctors, 
             lawyers, teachers and legislators.
               John C. Stennis graduated Phi Beta Kappa from 
             Mississippi State University in 1923 and, four years 
             later, received his law degree at the University of 
             Virginia. A year out of law school, he was elected to the 
             Mississippi Legislature, and that was followed by 
             elections as district prosecuting attorney and circuit 
             judge.
               After 10 years on the bench, he ran in 1947 for the 
             Senate seat vacated by the death of the flamboyant Senator 
             Theodore G. Bilbo and was elected that November over five 
             opponents. ``I want to plow a straight furrow right down 
             to the end of my row,'' Mr. Stennis asserted in that 
             campaign. The philosophy seems to have guided the rest of 
             his political career.
               Until his last campaign, in 1982, he was never seriously 
             challenged for re-election, and even then, facing a 34-
             year-old Republican, Haley Barbour, who made the Senator's 
             advanced age a major issue, Mr. Stennis won by about 2 to 
             1.
               In his early days in the Senate, he worked 16 hours a 
             day, staying in the Senate until it adjourned and then 
             studying in the Library of Congress until it closed. He 
             was, as an aide described him, ``a plodder, a guy who 
             would go over something once and then again and then again 
             until he finally understood all the complexities.''
               Asked once what his hobby was, Mr. Stennis said, ``My 
             work is my play and my play is my work.'' That work often 
             paid off in the currency of special projects for his 
             constituents. The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, a massive 
             public works project that opened in Mississippi in 1985, 
             is his pyramid.
               Few other Senators had such a commanding presence as Mr. 
             Stennis did in his heyday. When he stood on the floor to 
             speak, he would start by snapping his fingers, making a 
             sound that could be heard in every corner of the chamber, 
             and a page would come scurrying with a glass of water.
               Then, his throat cleared, he would rise behind the 
             lectern on his desk at the rear of the chamber, and a hush 
             would fall over the Senate. His speeches resembled 
             lectures. He would not tolerate interruptions, often 
             pointing his finger and making a ``shush'' sound when 
             another Senator tried to speak.
               He paced up and down the center aisle as he talked, with 
             such resonance that, even after microphones were installed 
             in the Senate, he often spoke without one.
               His voice remained clear and his mind sharp as he grew 
             older, but he had serious physical problems. He was shot 
             and seriously wounded by a burglar at his home in 1973, 
             and his left leg was amputated in 1984 because of cancer. 
             But each time, he returned to his Senate work much sooner 
             than expected.
               But the injury and the illness took their toll. After he 
             lost his leg, bars were constructed on his desk in the 
             Senate chamber so he could pull himself out of his 
             wheelchair and stand when he delivered one of his rare 
             speeches on the floor.
               Mr. Stennis's friends said he suffered from extreme 
             loneliness after his wife, the former Coy Hines, whom he 
             called ``Miss Coy,'' died in 1983. They had been married 
             more than 50 years.
               After his retirement, Mr. Stennis moved to the 
             Mississippi State University campus at Starkville, the 
             home of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government and 
             the John C. Stennis Center for Public Service, created by 
             Congress to train young leaders. Also named for him is 
             NASA's National Space Technology Laboratory near Bay St. 
             Louis, MS. The John C. Stennis Space Center tests rocket 
             motors. The Nation's newest aircraft carrier was 
             christened the John C. Stennis and is scheduled to be 
             commissioned next December.
               ``I do believe the most important thing I can do now is 
             to help young people understand the past and prepare for 
             the future,'' Mr. Stennis said in a 1990 interview while 
             serving as executive-in-residence at Mississippi State.
               In declining health, Mr. Stennis lived in recent years 
             in a nursing home in Madison, near Jackson. He is survived 
             by two children, Margaret Womble, of Winston-Salem, North 
             Carolina, and John H. Stennis, of Jackson, MS.
               Mr. Buffington said Mr. Stennis' body will lie in state 
             at the Old Capitol in Jackson on Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 1 
             p.m., and then at DeKalb Presbyterian Church in DeKalb 
             from 4-6 p.m. Graveside services are to be held at the 
             DeKalb Cemetery on Wednesday at 11 a.m.
                                          a
                    [From the Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1995]
                  John C. Stennis; Longtime Senator; Lawmaker from 
             Mississippi Chaired Armed Services Committee for 12 Years 
                       and Strongly Influenced Military Policy
                              (By a Times Staff Writer)
               Former Senator John C. Stennis (D-MS), a deeply 
             religious defense hawk who served four decades in the 
             Senate and exercised a major influence on U.S. military 
             policy, died of pneumonia Sunday afternoon at St. Dominic 
             Hospital in Jackson, MS. He was 93.
               Nicknamed the ``Conscience of the Senate'' for his 
             personal rectitude and his efforts to shape the upper 
             House's code of ethics, Stennis retired in 1988. He had 
             undergone cardiovascular surgery in 1983 and a year later 
             had his left leg amputated because of a malignant tumor in 
             his upper thigh.
               As chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services 
             Committee for 12 years, beginning in 1969, Stennis played 
             a key role in fighting off deep cuts in the defense 
             budget. He opposed judicial efforts to desegregate public 
             schools in 1954, but three decades later he supported 
             extending the Voting Rights Act.
               Close to eight Presidents, Stennis was the last of the 
             classic Southern gentlemen who so forcefully shaped the 
             character of the mid-century Senate. He was crusty yet 
             courtly, a stern moralist with an almost mystical devotion 
             to the Senate.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way,'' Senator Thad 
             Cochran (R-MS), said Sunday. ``He was effective, respected 
             and deeply appreciated by the people in Mississippi. He 
             was truly a man of great stature.''
               Stennis himself was more modest about his place in 
             history. ``How would I like to be remembered?'' he mused 
             in a 1985 interview. ``I haven't thought about that a 
             whole lot. You couldn't give me a finer compliment than 
             just to say, `He did his best.' ''
               Despite his genteel manners, Stennis could be tough. 
             Early in 1973, when the Senator was 71, he was held up by 
             two young hoodlums in front of his home in northwest 
             Washington. They robbed him and then shot him twice. One 
             bullet pierced his stomach, pancreas and colon.
               Surgeons at the Army's Walter Reed Hospital at first 
             doubted he would survive. But then-President Richard 
             Nixon, emerging from Stennis' hospital room, predicted 
             that the Senator would make it because ``he's got the will 
             to live in spades.'' Within 8 months, Stennis was back on 
             the Senate floor.
               Stennis attributed his remarkable recovery to prayer and 
             to his excellent physical condition, achieved from years 
             of exercising in the Senate gym.
               ``I just prayed that I could be useful again,'' he said, 
             reflecting on his ordeal. ``That's what the consuming 
             thought was, the consuming question--could I survive and 
             be useful? I decided that I could.''
               Stennis displayed a different kind of toughness in 1954 
             when he served on the select committee that probed charges 
             against the late Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-WI), and 
             became the first Senate Democrat to call for censure of 
             the free-swinging Wisconsin lawmaker. Although Stennis was 
             a dedicated conservative and an outspoken foe of 
             communism, he was offended by McCarthy's tactics.
               During the censure debate, Stennis rallied support from 
             many colleagues who had been afraid to attack McCarthy. In 
             a vigorous speech, he accused McCarthy of besmirching the 
             Senate's good name with ``slush and slime.''
               That same year, Stennis was one of the first members of 
             Congress to caution against U.S. involvement in Indochina.
               In a Senate speech delivered when the Eisenhower 
             administration was considering intervention to prevent a 
             French disaster in Vietnam, Stennis presciently warned 
             that committing U.S. ground forces could lead to ``a long, 
             costly and indecisive war.''
               Yet 11 years later, when President Lyndon B. Johnson 
             made a large-scale commitment to fight in Vietnam, Stennis 
             loyally backed his commander in chief. ``Once the die is 
             cast and once our flag is committed and our boys are sent 
             out to the field, you will find solid support for the war 
             from the South,'' he said.
               He also firmly backed defense spending throughout his 
             career, supporting the Pentagon even when the Vietnam War 
             made weapons procurement unpopular. ``If there is one 
             thing I'm unyielding and unbending on, it is that we must 
             have the very best weapons,'' he once said.
               As the Vietnam War wound down, however, Stennis co-
             sponsored the War Powers Act of 1973, which limits the 
             President's power to send troops into combat without 
             congressional consent.
               Senate liberals clashed frequently with Stennis on 
             subjects ranging from defense spending to civil rights, 
             but they invariably praised him for his fairness and 
             courtesy.
               And those were the qualities he prized.
               From the time he entered politics in 1928 as a member of 
             the Mississippi Legislature, he tried to base his life on 
             this motto: ``I will plow a straight furrow right down to 
             the end of my row.''
               That slogan reflected his rural background. John 
             Cornelius Stennis was born August 3, 1901, in DeKalb, 
             Mississippi, and grew up on a cotton and cattle farm in 
             what he described as the ``poor end of the poor end'' of 
             his state. He graduated from Mississippi State University 
             and the University of Virginia Law School, and served as a 
             district attorney and circuit judge before entering 
             politics.
               His Scots Presbyterian parents taught him to appreciate 
             the value of a dollar. ``I was raised to believe waste was 
             a sin,'' he once said. Stennis practiced that belief with 
             a vengeance: He carefully saved all the string from 
             packages that arrived at his home.
               As a courtly Southern gentleman, Stennis was known to 
             interrupt a Senate committee hearing to find a seat for a 
             woman spectator. But he had little tolerance for 
             miniskirts and other modern feminine trends.
               When a female Senate aide once sat on a sofa wearing a 
             skirt that exposed a good deal of her thigh, Stennis 
             averted his eyes and grumbled to a colleague: ``I'm going 
             to get a bolt of cloth so that lady can finish her 
             dress.''
               After his retirement, Stennis served as executive-in-
             residence at the Mississippi State University campus in 
             Starkville. The university houses the John C. Stennis 
             Institute of Government and the Stennis Center for Public 
             Service, created by Congress.
               ``I do believe the most important thing I can do now is 
             to help young people understand the past and prepare for 
             the future,'' Stennis said in 1990. ``As long as I have 
             energy left, I want to use it to the benefit of 
             students.''
               Stennis is survived by two children. His wife, Coy Hines 
             Stennis, whom he always called ``Miss Coy,'' died in 1983.
                                          a
               [From the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, April 24, 
                                        1995]
                    John Stennis, 93, Former Mississippi Senator
                                  (By Tom Bennett)
               John C. Stennis, a courtly Mississippi Democrat who 
             exercised vast influence over America's military during 
             his four decades in the Senate and was the mentor of 
             Georgia's Sam Nunn, died Sunday in Jackson, MS. He was 93.
               He died at St. Dominic Hospital, where he had been taken 
             several days ago for pneumonia, said his son, John Hampton 
             Stennis.
               He spent 40 years in the Senate, from 1948 until he 
             retired in 1988.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS). ``He was 
             truly a man of great stature. We have suffered a great 
             loss.''
               A Democrat, Mr. Stennis was tutored by a famous 
             Georgian, and later he returned the favor. Georgia's 
             Richard B. Russell taught him the ways of the Senate. Mr. 
             Stennis replaced Mr. Russell as chairman of the Senate 
             Armed Services Committee in 1969, and after Mr. Russell's 
             death in 1971, Mr. Stennis took over his office and desk. 
             In turn, when the young Sam Nunn of Georgia went to 
             Washington as a U.S. Senator in 1973, Mr. Stennis took him 
             under his wing and helped him get a seat on Armed 
             Services. In 1987, Mr. Nunn became Armed Services 
             chairman, restoring Southern leadership in an important 
             post.
               Often, his votes aided Georgians. For example, he 
             blocked a 1969 attempt by Senator William Proxmire of 
             Wisconsin to amend a spending measure and cut off $533 
             million for 23 C-5A cargo planes to be built by the 
             Lockheed-Georgia Co.
               Mr. Stennis chaired the Armed Services Committee from 
             1969 to 1980, then headed the Senate Appropriations 
             Committee from 1980 to 1988. In both roles, he wielded 
             tremendous power over U.S. military spending.
               He earned a reputation in Washington for fairness and 
             finesse that landed him delicate committee assignments and 
             close associations with eight U.S. Presidents. But his 
             opposition to integration blotted his record.
               He seemed indestructible, keeping his seat for decades, 
             before and after the civil rights revolution, and 
             especially so on January 30, 1973. That day he survived a 
             shooting during an armed robbery outside his Washington 
             home.
               Two men confronted the Senator as he stepped from his 
             car. He turned over his billfold, wristwatch and Phi Beta 
             Kappa key. Then the robbers said, according to Mr. 
             Stennis, ``We ought to shoot you anyway,'' and they did, 
             twice.
               One bullet entered the Senator's left thigh and settled 
             against a bone; it was removed later in surgery. A second 
             bullet entered his chest, tore downward through his 
             stomach and intestine and lodged in his lower back. 
             Surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center lasted 6 hours. 
             When Mr. Stennis returned to his Senate seat, Senator 
             Henry ``Scoop'' Jackson lauded him, saying, ``The Senate 
             is whole again.''
               He was born August 3, 1901, in DeKalb, MS. He graduated 
             from Mississippi State University in 1923, then attended 
             the University of Virginia Law School.
               He began his public service in 1928 in the Mississippi 
             Legislature, then served as a district attorney and 
             circuit judge.
               The Senator's body will lie in state Tuesday from 10 
             a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson and 
             from 4-6 p.m. at DeKalb Presbyterian Church in DeKalb. 
             Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at 
             Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb.
               Survivors include his son, a Jackson lawyer, and his 
             daughter, Margaret Womble.
                                          a
                    [From the Indianapolis News, April 24, 1995]
                              John Stennis Was Senator
                                  (By Wire Reports)
               JACKSON, Mississippi.--John Cornelius Stennis, 93, a 
             Mississippi Democrat who trained generations of Senators 
             in the ways of Washington, opposed virtually all civil 
             rights legislation and staunchly supported the Vietnam 
             War, died Sunday, several days after being hospitalized 
             with pneumonia.
               During 41 years in the Senate, Stennis earned a 
             reputation for fairness and finesse that landed him 
             delicate committee assignments and close associations with 
             eight U.S. Presidents.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS).
               As chairman of both the Senate Armed Services Committee 
             and the Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations 
             Committee in the 1970s, Stennis wielded more clout over 
             military matters than perhaps any civilian but the 
             President.
               Nicknamed the ``conscience of the Senate'' for his work 
             on the Senate's code of ethics and his religious 
             convictions, Stennis overcame personal tragedy to continue 
             public service.
               He was wounded by robbers and left bleeding on the 
             sidewalk near his northwest Washington home in 1973. Coy 
             Hines Stennis, his wife of 52 years, died in 1983. And in 
             1984, he lost his left leg to cancer, and had to use a 
             wheelchair.
               ``Discouraged? I suppose everybody's had his ups and 
             downs. But I've never surrendered,'' Stennis said in 1984.
                                          a
                   [From the Gannett News Service, April 24, 1995]
                             Former Senator Stennis Dies
                    (By the Jackson, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger)
               John Cornelius Stennis, 93, a drawling Mississippi 
             country lawyer who attained some of the most powerful 
             positions during four decades in the U.S. Senate, died of 
             pneumonia Sunday at St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital.
               He had been hospitalized since Thursday, said his son, 
             John Hampton Stennis of Jackson.
               Stennis, who retired in 1988, played a major role in the 
             country's affairs. At one time he carried as much clout 
             over military matters as any civilian except the 
             President.
               ``I shall go to the Senate without obligations or 
             commitments, save to serve the plain people of 
             Mississippi,'' the DeKalb native said November 5, 1947, 
             upon his election.
               Throughout his Senate career, Stennis lived in an 
             unassuming, one-story white clapboard house. His office, a 
             nondescript red brick building across from the county 
             courthouse, bore a simple sign: ``John C. Stennis, 
             Lawyer.''
               That sign was a deceptively modest description for a 
             country-born lawyer who rose to become a confidant of 
             Presidents and a major player in events that led the 
             United States through the Cold War, the civil rights 
             movement, the Watergate scandal and into the Reagan years.
               ``He was one of the great statesmen for our nation in 
             the 20th century,'' Representative Sonny Montgomery (D-
             MS), said Sunday. ``History will record John Stennis as a 
             true son of the South. His legacy in Mississippi will 
             never disappear.''
               One of seven children, Stennis was born on a Kemper 
             County farm 36 years after the end of the Civil War.
               Elected to two terms in the Mississippi House, Stennis 
             successfully campaigned for the district prosecuting 
             attorney post, in which he served until 1935.
               While he avoided race during his 1947 campaign, Stennis 
             quickly got caught up in the national civil rights debate 
             once he got to Washington.
               His first two speeches on the Senate floor were against 
             Federal anti-lynching, anti-poll tax and equal employment 
             legislation--claiming they represented unconstitutional 
             interference with the States' rights to govern themselves.
               He became a leader in supporting segregation in the 
             South and participated in filibusters that prevented votes 
             on civil rights legislation. In 1956, he helped draft the 
             Southern Manifesto, signed by 101 Southern Congressmen to 
             voice their opposition to desegregation.
               But once the civil rights laws were enacted in the 
             1960s, Stennis urged compliance.
               In a 1965 plea, Stennis said Mississippi ``above all 
             must maintain a spirit of law and order. Any other course 
             will take us downward and will eventually blight our 
             future.''
               By 1982, Stennis' stance on racial issues had changed to 
             the point he voted for an extension of the 1965 Voting 
             Rights Act.
               In 1954, he became the first Senate Democrat to call for 
             the censure of red-baiting Republican Senator Joseph 
             McCarthy of Wisconsin.
               In a speech that made national headlines, Stennis said 
             McCarthy had poured ``slush and slime'' on the Senate with 
             his attacks. Senate observers saw his speech as a serious 
             blow to McCarthy's efforts to escape censure.
               Stennis' speech drew accolades from around the country. 
             ``I didn't know what it was to get such press as that,'' 
             he said.
               It was also in 1954 that Stennis warned that the United 
             States was in danger of being drawn into the fighting in 
             Vietnam by supplying assistance to the French effort to 
             defeat the Vietnamese communists.
               Committing U.S. forces could result in a ``long, costly 
             and indecisive war that will leave us without victory,'' 
             he warned.
               But Stennis, after he had moved up as Armed Services 
             chairman, gave the war his total support. In 1966, he 
             suggested the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Southeast 
             Asia should the Chinese enter the war.
               Stennis landed on the powerful Appropriations Committee 
             in 1955. In 1969, he became chairman of the Armed Services 
             Committee.
               In 1973, he was critically wounded by gunshots from two 
             young muggers outside his Washington home. The Senator was 
             shot in the left side and in the thigh after his 
             assailants took his wallet, a gold pocket watch, his Phi 
             Beta Kappa key and a quarter. For 5 weeks the 71-year-old 
             Stennis slipped in and out of consciousness in Walter Reed 
             Army Hospital.
               Stennis faced his first serious political challenger in 
             1982 from well-financed Republican Haley Barbour of Yazoo 
             City. The campaign focused primarily on age--whether 
             Stennis at 81 was too old or Barbour at 34 was too young.
               Stennis won with 65 percent of the vote.
               In 1983, ``Miss Coy,'' his wife of 54 years, died. Also 
             that year, he had cardiovascular surgery and suffered 
             pneumonia. A year later, doctors removed his cancerous 
             left leg.
               With his health problems and his age working against 
             him, Stennis announced his retirement on October 19, 1987, 
             shortly after routine prostate surgery in Washington.
               ``I am forced to recognize that another 6-year term in 
             the Senate would require me to promise to continue my work 
             here through age 93,'' the 86-year-old Stennis said.
                                          a
                        [From the Fresno Bee, April 24, 1995]
                 John C. Stennis, Senator from 1947 to 1988, Dies; 
                     Mississippi Democrat Wielded Military Clout
                                (By Stephen Hawkins)
               Former Senator John C. Stennis, a courtly Mississippi 
             Democrat who exercised vast influence over America's 
             military during his four decades in the Senate, died 
             Sunday. He was 93.
               Senator Stennis died around 3:30 p.m. at St. Dominic 
             Hospital, where he had been taken several days ago for 
             pneumonia, said his son John Hampton Stennis.
               Senator Stennis earned a reputation in Washington for 
             fairness and finesse that landed him delicate committee 
             assignments and close association with eight U.S. 
             Presidents. But his opposition to integration blotted his 
             record.
               Senator Stennis joined the Senate in 1947. At the time 
             of his retirement in 1988, he was its oldest member.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS). ``He 
             was truly a man of great stature. We have suffered a great 
             loss.''
               Senator Stennis was born August 3, 1901, in DeKalb and 
             graduated from Mississippi State University in 1923 before 
             attending the University of Virginia Law School.
               Serving as chairman of both the Armed Services Committee 
             and the Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations 
             Committee during the 1970s, he wielded more clout over 
             military matters than perhaps any civilian except the 
             President.
               He was a leading backer of the Vietnam War. But in the 
             war's waning days, he co-sponsored legislation to set 
             limits on a president's power to commit U.S. forces to 
             combat without congressional consent.
               He condemned the Supreme Court's 1954 school 
             desegregation decision, but in 1983 he switched and voted 
             for an extension of the Voting Rights Act.
               He later said he supported the advancement of all races.
                                          a
               [From the Commercial Appeal (Memphis), April 24, 1995]
               Mississippi's Stennis, ``Mr. Integrity,'' Dies at 93, 
                   Senator For Four Decades Never Lost an Election
                      (By William C. Bayne and Sarah A. Derks)
               Former Senator John Cornelius Stennis, who spent four 
             decades in the Senate exercising vast influence over 
             America's military, died Sunday. The Mississippi Democrat 
             was 93.
               Stennis died about 3:30 p.m. at St. Dominic Hospital in 
             Jackson, MS, where he had been taken several days ago for 
             pneumonia, said his son, John Hampton Stennis.
               The Senator earned a reputation in Washington for 
             fairness and finesse that landed him delicate committee 
             assignments and close association with eight U.S. 
             Presidents. But his opposition to integration blotted his 
             record.
               He joined the Senate in 1947. At the time of his 
             retirement in 1988, he was its oldest member.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS). ``He 
             was truly a man of great stature. We have suffered a great 
             loss.''
               Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice, who called Stennis 
             ``a key fixture in America's winning the Cold War,'' also 
             said the former Senator will be greatly missed.
               ``All of Mississippi mourns for Senator John C. Stennis, 
             one of the outstanding Americans ever to serve in the 
             United States Senate,'' Fordice said. ``His service to 
             this state was long and faithful and he enjoyed national 
             prominence as well.''
               Former Mississippi Governor William Winter, 72, called 
             Stennis a ``political hero.''
               ``He represented what I thought a political leader ought 
             to be,'' said Winter, who worked for Stennis as a 
             legislative assistant in the early 1950s and was governor 
             from 1980 to 1984.
               The Senator's body will lie in state Tuesday from 10 
             a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson and 
             from 4-6 p.m. at DeKalb Presbyterian Church in DeKalb. 
             Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday at 
             Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb.
               Stennis, revered as ``Mr. Integrity,'' and ``The 
             Judge,'' overcame personal tragedy to continue public 
             service. He survived a near-fatal attack by gunmen who 
             attempted to rob him in front of his Washington home on 
             January 30, 1973. The gunmen shot him twice in the abdomen 
             and left him to die. He was 71 at the time and his 
             recovery included a hospital stay of more than 4 months.
               Coy Hines Stennis, his wife of 52 years, died in 1983. 
             In 1984, he lost his left leg to cancer.
               As chairman of both the Armed Services Committee and the 
             Defense Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee 
             during the 1970s, Stennis wielded immeasurable influence.
               Stennis was by no means a traditionalist in Southern 
             politics. His 1947 special-election campaign to fill the 
             unexpired term of the late Senator Theodore G. Bilbo's 
             seat differed radically from the type to which Southerners 
             had become accustomed. He did not mention his opponents or 
             hurl accusations at them.
               He was best known in the Senate press gallery for his 
             booming baritone, which often was heard crying, ``Mr. 
             President, may we have order?'' The request usually 
             resulted in an instant hush.
               Stennis had a mixed record on equal rights. He condemned 
             the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation decision, 
             and in 1975 he voted against extending the Voting Rights 
             Act. But in 1983 he switched and voted for its extension.
               He later said he always supported the advancement of all 
             races. He argued that the 1954 ruling had forced the South 
             to desegregate its schools but not the North.
               The so-called Stennis Amendment, passed in 1972, 
             requires school desegregation policies to be ``applied 
             uniformly in all regions of the United States.''
               In the 1975 debate over the Voting Rights Act, Stennis 
             renewed his theme against regionalized federal laws. He 
             called the law ``a monstrosity which never should have 
             been passed,'' and added, ``if we are to have such a law, 
             it should be applicable nationwide and not just to seven 
             states chosen on the basis of arbitrary criteria designed 
             to ensure their inclusion.''
               The Voting Rights Act, first enacted in 1965, applies 
             only to Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South 
             Carolina, Virginia and 39 counties in North Carolina.
               A former staff assistant to Stennis, Ed Cole, who is 
             black, said Stennis did not object to equal rights for all 
             races but to the working of the Voting Rights Act 
             extension and the idea that the law would apply only to 
             the South.
               Stennis was born on August 3, 1901, the son of Hampton 
             Howell Stennis and Cornelia Adams Stennis. He graduated 
             from Mississippi State University in 1923 and received his 
             law degree from the University of Virginia in 1928.
               He entered Mississippi politics sickly thereafter, 
             serving in the state House of Representatives from 1928 to 
             1932 before joining the district attorney's office.
               Stennis was prosecuting attorney for the 16th Judicial 
             District from 1931 to 1937 and a circuit court judge until 
             1947.
               Stennis was first elected November 4, 1947, in that 
             special election to fill Bilbo's unexpired term. He was 
             overwhelmingly re-elected in 1952, 1958, 1964, 1970, 1976 
             and 1982, when he indicated to supporters that he was 
             running his last political campaign. He never lost an 
             election.
               In 1929, he married the former Coy Hines of New Albany, 
             MS. The couple lived simply in a two-story Northwest 
             Washington home. They rarely went out and occasionally on 
             Saturday mornings, she would prepare one of his favorite 
             meals: country ham and eggs with cornbread and melted 
             cheese.
               His wife's death was a crushing loss for the Senator.
               ``She always carried her part of the load and was a 
             great help to me,'' Stennis said at the time.
               In 1965, Stennis was given the chairmanship of the newly 
             formed Senate Ethics Committee. The panel's first 
             unpleasant duty was the case of Senator Thomas Dodd (D-
             CT), who was accused of campaign fund finagling. Stennis 
             and the committee went to great lengths to give Dodd, now 
             deceased, a chance to defend himself, but in the end, 
             recommended censure.
               Senator Mark Hatfield (R-OR), later remarked, ``Some of 
             us freshmen were sitting around once during the Dodd 
             hearings and we agreed that if we found ourselves charged 
             with some terrible crime and if we could pick our judge, 
             we'd pick John Stennis to judge us.''
               In 1954, during Stennis's first full term, the 
             Mississippian became the first Democrat to ask for censure 
             of the late Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R-WI). If the 
             Senate approved of McCarthy's tactics in hunting 
             Communists and other subversives, said Stennis, 
             ``something big and fine will have gone from this 
             chamber.''
               Stennis used his respect and standing among his 
             colleagues to battle for the preservation of the 
             Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway project. In 1980, he called 
             in his markers from other Senators, asking them to vote to 
             maintain funding levels on the $1.8 billion project.
               Stennis was largely successful in his efforts, despite 
             considerable carping from Senators who called the project 
             one of the greatest pork-barrel schemes in history.
               In 1974 when President Richard Nixon's administration 
             was foundering in the Watergate morass, Stennis praised 
             Nixon as a ``courageous President'' citing Nixon's 
             successes in foreign policy.
               A pillar in the Presbyterian Church, Stennis founded in 
             the Senate what became known as the ``Wednesday morning 
             prayer breakfast group.'' It consisted of 20 Senators, 
             Democrats and Republicans, who have breakfast and hold 
             informal religious observances when the Senate is in 
             session.
               The Senator, who rarely missed a Senate session because 
             of illness, maintained his weight at a trim 175 pounds. 
             Stennis generally shunned Washington's cocktail circuit, 
             but enjoyed an occasional scotch and soda. He also loved 
             baseball, and before the old Washington Senators fled to 
             Dallas, he often would slip out to the ball park.
               After his retirement, Stennis moved to the Mississippi 
             State University campus in Starkville, which also is the 
             home of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government and 
             the Stennis Center for Public Service.
               Mississippi State University created the John C. Stennis 
             Chair of Political Science in 1971 with funds donated by 
             the Senator and his friends. Many of his personal letters 
             and public papers are housed at the university's library.
               Stennis held several honorary degrees and was a member 
             of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Alpha Delta (legal) and Alpha Gamma 
             Rho fraternities. He was a Presbyterian, a Mason and a 
             member of the Lions Club and the Mississippi and American 
             bar associations.
               Also named for the Senator is NASA's National Space 
             Technology Laboratory in southern Mississippi. The John C. 
             Stennis Space Center tests rocket motors.
               ``How would I like to be remembered? I haven't thought 
             about that a whole lot,'' Stennis said in a 1985 
             interview. ``You couldn't give me a finer compliment than 
             just to say, `He did his best.' ''
               Stennis left politics though because ``he knew when it 
             was time for him to leave,'' Cole said.
               ``He was a proud man'' and disliked depending on people 
             for help because of his health.
               He was troubled about having only one leg because ``he 
             couldn't stand when ladies entered the room,'' Cole said. 
             ``That was a great concern to him.''
               Stennis is survived by his son, John Hampton Stennis, a 
             Jackson lawyer, and his daughter, Margaret Womble. The 
             family reguests that any donations be made to an 
             educational, charitable or religious group.
                                          a
                     [From the Chicago Tribune, April 24, 1995]
                       Former Mississippi Senator John Stennis
                                (By Associated Press)
               Former Senator John Stennis, a courtly Mississippi 
             Democrat who exercised vast influence over America's 
             military during his four decades in the Senate, died 
             Sunday. He was 93.
               Senator Stennis died about 3:30 p.m. at St. Dominic 
             Hospital, where he had been taken several days ago for 
             pneumonia, said his son John Hampton Stennis.
               Senator Stennis earned a reputation in Washington for 
             fairness and finesse that landed him delicate committee 
             assignments and close association with eight U.S. 
             Presidents. But his opposition to integration blotted his 
             record.
               He joined the Senate in 1947. At the time of his 
             retirement in 1988, he was its oldest member.
               Senator Stennis, nicknamed the ``conscience of the 
             Senate'' for his work on the Senate's code of ethics and 
             his strict religious convictions, overcame personal 
             tragedy to continue public service.
               He was wounded by robbers and left bleeding on the 
             sidewalk near his northwest Washington home in 1973. 
             President Richard Nixon, emerging from Stennis' hospital 
             room after the attack, said the Senator would survive 
             because ``he's got the will to live in spades.''
               Coy Hines Stennis, his wife of 52 years, died in 1983. 
             And in 1984, he lost his left leg to cancer and had to use 
             a wheelchair.
               Senator Stennis, serving as chairman of both the Armed 
             Services Committee and the Defense Subcommittee of the 
             Appropriations Committee during the 1970s, wielded more 
             clout over military matters than perhaps any civilian 
             except the President.
               He was a consistent advocate of the need for a strong 
             military.
               ``If there is one thing I'm unyielding and unbending on, 
             it is that we must have the very best weapons,'' he once 
             said.
               After militants in Iran seized the U.S. Embassy and held 
             its employees hostage in late 1979, Senator Stennis 
             suggested a fleet of small aircraft carriers be built to 
             counter such crises around the world.
               ``Trouble can come from anywhere now,'' he said. ``We've 
             got to be ready for instant action.''
               Soon after, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and 
             Senator Stennis called for U.S. military support bases 
             near Mideast oil fields.
               Though he stood for a tough military, he did not always 
             back Presidential military policy.
               He was a leading backer of the Vietnam War. However, in 
             the war's waning days, he co-sponsored legislation to set 
             limits on a President's power to commit U.S.forces to 
             combat without Congressional consent.
               A decade later, Senator Stennis opposed using that law--
             the War Powers Act of 1973--to permit President Ronald 
             Reagan to keep marine peacekeeping troops in Lebanon.
               He condemned the Supreme Court's 1954 school 
             desegregation decision, but in 1983 he voted for an 
             extension of the Voting Rights Act. He later said he 
             always supported the advancement of all races.
               John Stennis was born August 3, 1901, in DeKalb, MS, and 
             graduated from Mississippi State University in 1923 before 
             attending the University of Virginia Law School. He began 
             his public service in 1928 in the Mississippi Legislature 
             and then served as a district attorney and circuit judge 
             before joining the U.S. Senate.
               ``How would I like to be remembered? I haven't thought 
             about that a whole lot,'' Senator Stennis said in a 1985 
             interview. ``You couldn't give me a finer compliment than 
             just to say, `He did his best.' ''
                                          a
                  [From the Charleston Daily Mail, April 24, 1995]
                             Ex-Mississippi Senator Dies
                                     (Editorial)
               JACKSON, MS--John Cornelius Stennis, a Mississippi 
             Democrat who trained generations of Senators in the ways 
             of Washington, opposed virtually all civil rights 
             legislation and staunchly supported the Vietnam War, has 
             died. He was 93.
               Stennis died Sunday at St. Dominic Hospital, where he 
             had been taken several days ago for pneumonia, said his 
             son John Hampton Stennis.
               During 41 years in the Senate, Stennis earned a 
             reputation for fairness and finesse that landed him 
             delicate committee assignments and close associations with 
             eight U.S. Presidents.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS).
               As chairman of both the Senate Armed Services Committee 
             and theDefense Subcommittee of the Appropriations 
             Committee in the 1970s, Stennis wielded more clout over 
             military matters than perhaps any civilian but the 
             President.
               ``If there is one thing I'm unyielding and unbending on, 
             it is that we must have the very best weapons,'' Stennis 
             once said.
               When he retired in 1988, Stennis was the Senate's oldest 
             member, and had served longer than all but one other--Carl 
             Hayden of Arizona, who retired in 1969.
               Stennis was born August 3, 1901, in DeKalb and graduated 
             from Mississippi State University in 1923 before attending 
             the University of Virginia Law School.
               He began his public service in 1928 in the Mississippi 
             Legislature, then served as a district attorney and 
             circuit judge before joining the U.S. Senate.
               Stennis' body will lie in state Tuesday at the Old 
             Capitol Museum in Jackson and later at the DeKalb 
             Presbyterian Church. Graveside services will be Wednesday 
             at Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb, his hometown.
                                          a
                [From the Austin American-Statesman, April 24, 1995]
                Former Senator John Stennis of Mississippi Dies at 93
                                     (Editorial)
               JACKSON, MS--Former Senator John Stennis, a Mississippi 
             Democrat who exercised vast influence over America's 
             military during his four decades in the Senate, died 
             Sunday. He was 93.
               Stennis died about 3:30 p.m. CDT at St. Dominic 
             Hospital, where he had been taken several days ago for 
             pneumonia, said his son John Hampton Stennis.
               Stennis earned a reputation in Washington for fairness 
             and finesse that landed him delicate committee assignments 
             and close association with eight U.S. Presidents. But his 
             opposition to integration blotted his record.
               Stennis joined the Senate in 1947. At the time of his 
             retirement in 1988, he was its oldest member.
               ``He was a great Senator in every way. He was effective, 
             respected and deeply appreciated by the people in 
             Mississippi,'' said U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS).
               Stennis overcame personal tragedy to continue public 
             service.
               He was wounded by robbers and left bleeding on the 
             sidewalk in Washington in 1973. President Nixon, emerging 
             from Stennis' hospital room, said the Senator would 
             survive because ``he's got the will to live in spades.''
               Coy Stennis, his wife of 52 years, died in 1983. In 
             1984, he lost his left leg to cancer.
               ``Discouraged? I suppose everybody's had his ups and 
             downs. But I've never surrendered,'' Stennis said then.
               Stennis, serving as chairman of both the Armed Services 
             Committee and the Defense Subcommittee of the 
             Appropriations Committee during the 1970s, wielded more 
             clout over military matters than perhaps any civilian 
             except the President.
               He was a leading backer of the Vietnam War. However, in 
             the war's waning days, he co-sponsored legislation to set 
             limits on a president's power to commit American forces to 
             combat without congressional consent.
               A decade later, Stennis opposed using that law--the War 
             Powers Act of 1973--to permit President Reagan to keep 
             Marine peacekeeping troops in Lebanon.
               He condemned the Supreme Court's 1954 school 
             desegregation decision, but in 1983 he switched and voted 
             for an extension of the Voting Rights Act.
                                          a
                      [From the Clarion-Ledger, April 25, 1995]
                   Stennis Friends Recall Leader's Human Qualities
                                   (By Mac Gordon)
             high office didn't steal common touch, those who knew him 
                                         say
               DeKALB--John C. Stennis was remembered in his hometown 
             Monday as a gentleman, and a man of the highest integrity.
               But retired farmer James ``Red'' McCoy, 79, who has 
             known the Stennis family all his life and whose late 
             mother-in-law helped raise the 41-year U.S. Senator, 
             described Stennis more succinctly.
               ``He was number one around here,'' said McCoy, sitting 
             glumly on a bench in front of Sciple's Grocery just off 
             the square surrounding the Kemper County Courthouse.
               Stennis, who died Sunday of complications from 
             pneumonia, was considered a regular kind of guy by most 
             folks here in the piney, red clay hills of east central 
             Mississippi.
               He certainly lived like most folks. Take his 
             unpretentious house on the southern edge of town. A U.S. 
             Senator, for whom aircraft carriers and space centers are 
             named, has a big faded-green hot water heater standing in 
             the middle of the kitchen and window air conditioners 
             perched all around.
               ``He was just glad to have that hot water heater. He 
             wanted everybody to see it,'' laughed retired pharmacist 
             John T. Reed, 63, who lives across the Mississippi 39 
             entrance to the 1,073-population town from the Stennis 
             home.
               Bobbie Harbour, who ran Stennis's DeKalb office the 
             final 13 years he served, said Stennis always enjoyed 
             coming back to the neat residence that she hopes will be 
             preserved in his memory.
               ``He always said that he had a house in Washington but a 
             home in Kemper County,'' Harbour said.
               Harbour said Stennis was rarely marked in his hometown 
             as one of the Nation's mightiest politicians. In fact, 
             Stennis was sometimes not even recalled as a member of the 
             U.S. Senate.
               ``One time a visitor came to town and asked this elderly 
             man sitting around the square how he could locate Senator 
             Stennis. The local man said, `I don't know a Senator 
             Stennis. Now we have Judge Stennis here.' A lot of people 
             remember him that way,'' Harbour said, harkening to the 
             decade Stennis spent as a circuit judge before winning a 
             special election to the Senate in 1947.
               Harbour said locals had long expected Stennis' death. 
             But that didn't make it any easier to take.
               ``We always thought he would be there,'' she said.
               DeKalb lawyer Jimmy Spinks, 48, recalled Stennis as 
             being strong enough to survive serious gunshot wounds 
             outside his Washington home in 1973.
               ``We had a prayer service at our church for him because 
             we didn't think he would make it. But he was of strong 
             stock. He had taken care of himself,'' Spinks said.
               Stennis' character, said Spinks, was such that ``he 
             never had any bitterness about that (shooting). I don't 
             know that he ever mentioned it.''
               Harbour said she hopes Mississippians will remember 
             Stennis in November when they decide whether to place term 
             limits on members of Congress.
               ``I think Senator Stennis, Senator Jim Eastland and 
             Congressman Jamie Whitten are probably the best argument 
             Mississippi has against term limits,'' Harbour said of the 
             trio that accumulated vast power during their combined 130 
             years in Congress.
                                          a
             [From the Reflector (Mississippi State University), April 
                                      25, 1995]
                       Senator John C. Stennis Dies at Age 93
                                 (By Alison Stamps)
                                  a man to remember
               As Mississippi reflects on the life and accomplishments 
             of its great statesman and former Senator, John C. 
             Stennis, Mississippi State also suffers the loss of one of 
             its most revered alumni.
               Stennis, 93, died of pneumonia Sunday in Jackson.
               The body will lie in state Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 1 
             p.m. in the Old Capitol in Jackson and at DeKalb 
             Presbyterian Church from 4-6 p.m. Wednesday, a graveside 
             service will be held at 11 a.m. at Pinecrest Cemetery in 
             DeKalb. Jackson's Southern Mortuary Services is handling 
             arrangements.
               Stennis, born August 3, 1901 in Kemper County, came to 
             Mississippi A&M College in 1919 and received his bachelor 
             of science degree in general science.
               According to Rex Buffington, Stennis' press secretary of 
             10 years and executive director of MSU's Stennis Center 
             for Public Service, the steps of Lee Hall are where 
             Stennis found ``his sense of purpose, the calling to which 
             he would devote his life.''
               Buffington said Stennis was in his sophomore year when 
             he sat alone to think on the steps, and he heard through 
             an open window professor A.B. Butts giving a lecture on 
             government. His heart was moved towards public service, 
             and Mississippi was granted Senator Stennis.
               Stennis also met his wife of 55 years at MSU. He was in 
             his senior year delivering a telephone message to Miss Coy 
             Hines, who was attending a meeting of home demonstration 
             agents on campus.
               ``John C. Stennis could never walk past the spot on 
             campus, near where the student Union now stands, where he 
             met `Miss Coy' without pausing to recall that fateful day 
             and how it enriched his life. He would also wonder at how 
             many other romances were begun on the campus, some lasting 
             for a lifetime, others for only a brief period, but all 
             special in their own way,'' Buffington said.
               He never lost his love for MSU, and he became involved 
             in the Mississippi State Alumni Association serving as 
             president of the organization from 1940-1941.
               Director of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government 
             at MSU Marty Wiseman said Stennis fit the ``psyche'' of 
             Mississippi State.
               ``He was just right--so much integrity and stature,'' 
             Wiseman said. ``He was genuinely proud of Mississippi 
             State.''
               Wiseman said Stennis would never say anything negative 
             about another person or thing--even the University of 
             Mississippi.
               Wiseman said he would see Stennis grin and chuckle when 
             asked about MSU's rival, but Wiseman said he would always 
             say that he was ``a Senator for Oxford, too.''
               ``While we will miss his presence, we take this 
             opportunity to recommit ourselves to following the example 
             that he set in his thousands of actions as a servant to 
             the citizens of his beloved Mississippi, Wiseman said.
               ``I was really grateful I had the chance to know him,'' 
             David Dallas, Stennis' former staff member-in-residence, 
             said. ``I know he's in a much better place now.''
               Dallas said he never got the chance to meet either of 
             his grandfathers, so Stennis became the grandfather he has 
             never had. He added they had fun in their relationship.
               Dallas said Stennis never disappointed people and that 
             ``he was a true statesman.''
               ``Whether as a State legislator, a judge, a U.S. Senator 
             or finally as a university teacher, Senator Stennis was 
             determined to give an honest day's work for those who 
             placed their trust in him,'' Wiseman said.
               ``It's a sense of loss even though his career was 
             over,'' Wiseman said, ``because he was such a symbol.''
               Wiseman said Stennis showed that one could have 
             integrity and still be a politician.
               Wiseman said integrity was very important to Stennis--
             whether in Starkville or in Washington, DC.
               Dallas agreed and said, ``If there was just one more 
             John C. Stennis in Congress, there would be a greater 
             sense of integrity in the Senate.''
               Stennis was not only recognized throughout the State he 
             represented, but he was also well known and respected 
             nationally.
               Dallas said Stennis received a copy of John F. Kennedy's 
             ``A Profile in Courage,'' and the President (to the best 
             of Dallas' memory) had written to Stennis in the cover, 
             ``A Senator of Courage in the finest tradition of its 
             State.''
               ``I don't think the Nation has produced another such 
             statesman,'' Dallas said.
               He added that Stennis not only saw the important issues 
             of Mississippi, but was a ``trustee'' of the State.
               Dallas said he was not ``a poll person,'' but did ``what 
             he felt was right for Mississippi and the United States.''
               ``The wealth he might have never occurred to him,'' 
             Wiseman said, adding Stennis was finicky with his 
             dollars--whether his own or the taxpayers'.
               Wiseman said Stennis will be missed, but he added his 
             presence will live on through all he accomplished and 
             through the John C. Stennis Institute of Government.
               ``It is a heavy but proud burden that we (the Stennis 
             Institute of Government) bear as we strive to daily follow 
             the principles set before us in the life of Mississippi's 
             most admired public servant--Senator John C. Stennis,'' 
             Wiseman said.
               Wiseman said the Institute often receives phone calls 
             about problems rural, small towns are having, and a staff 
             member travels to help those who may be in need. He said 
             Stennis felt if the problem was big enough for the call, 
             it was large enough for someone to go down and see the 
             problem in person--thus, the Institute's staff continues 
             the Stennis greatness by getting personally involved.
               ``This is 80 percent Stennis inspiration--nobody is too 
             small,'' Wiseman said.
                                          a
             [From the Reflector (Mississippi State University), April 
                                      25, 1995]
                   A Lifetime Spent in the Service of His Fellow 
                                   Mississippians
                             (Special to the Reflector)
               After receiving a bachelor of science degree in general 
             science in 1923 from what was known as Mississippi A&M 
             College, U.S. Senator John Cornelius Stennis spent his 
             life as a public servant to Mississippi and the country.
               Stennis received a law degree from the University of 
             Virginia in Charlottesville and came home to practice law 
             in DeKalb. In 1928, he was elected to serve in the 
             Mississippi House of Representatives.
               From 1931-1937, Stennis was a district prosecuting 
             attorney. He became the youngest circuit-court judge in 
             Mississippi in 1937 and continued his work until 1947, 
             when he ran for a U.S. Senate seat.
               With the campaign slogan, `` I will plow a straight 
             furrow right down to the end of my row. This is my 
             political religion,'' Stennis defeated five opponents and 
             began his 41-year U.S. Senate career, serving from 
             President Truman to President Reagan.
               Stennis retired in 1988, but not before he made an 
             impact on Mississippi and Washington, DC.
               In 1958, the same year he was named as MSU's first 
             ``Alumnus of the Year,'' Stennis was named chairman of a 
             Senate Armed Services Subcommittee. In 1969 Stennis was 
             named chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and 
             served in this position until 1980.
               Stennis also impacted the State as a member of the 
             Senate Appropriations Committee when helping to obtain 
             funding for harbor and Mississippi River projects. In 1987 
             Stennis was named chairman of this committee and became 
             President Pro Tempore of the Senate.
               In 1965 Stennis was appointed (and then named by fellow 
             members as chairman) to the first Senate Select Committee 
             on Standards and Conduct, also known as the Ethics 
             Committee.
               One of most visible accomplishments came in 1970 when 
             Stennis urged Congress to begin construction on the 
             Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
               he was later rewarded for his services to Mississippi 
             and to the United States when President Reagan announced a 
             nuclear-powered aircraft carrier would be named for the 
             Senator. In 1993 the USS Stennis was christened at Newport 
             News, Virginia.
                                          a
                      [From the Clarion-Ledger, April 26, 1995]
                          Hundreds Pay Respects to Stennis
                                 (By Emily Wagster)
                 the powerful senate leader never forgot his roots, 
                                    mourners say
               Hundreds of mourners Tuesday filed past the casket of 
             John C. Stennis at the State's Old Capitol, remembering 
             him as a State legislator, district attorney, judge and, 
             finally, one of the most powerful U.S. Senators of his 
             time.
               J.K. Morgan recalled Stennis in another important role: 
             Boy Scout master in Kemper County.
               ``It was 1925, 1926, 1927, along in there,'' said 
             Morgan, now 80 and living in Jackson. ``We had only 10 or 
             11 Boy Scouts. He would take us out once a year to a 
             pasture on the edge of a small creek. We would spend the 
             night and have a meeting. He was a good man.''
               Stennis, 93, died Sunday of complications from 
             pneumonia.
               He will be buried today after graveside services at 
             Pinecrest Cemetery in his native DeKalb.
               Stennis was first elected to the Senate in 1947 and 
             retired in 1988. He shaped national policy as Senate Armed 
             Services Committee chairman during the Vietnam War and 
             Senate Appropriations Committee chairman in 1987 and 1988. 
             In January 1987, his colleagues elected him Senate 
             President Pro Tempore, making him third in line to the 
             Presidency.
               On Tuesday, mourners remembered Stennis as a man who 
             never forgot his Mississippi roots.
               U.S. Representative Gene Taylor, first elected to 
             Congress after Stennis' retirement, said he talked to 
             Stennis in 1989 about meetings the Senator conducted in 
             Hancock County in the late 1950s. Stennis had to convince 
             people to give up their homes and land for what became a 
             NASA research facility that bears his name--the John C. 
             Stennis Space Center.
               ``The thing that struck me was that 30 years later, he 
             could still remember the names of the people he talked to 
             at that meeting,'' Taylor said.
               Lt. Governor Eddie Briggs of DeKalb, several state 
             legislators and State Supreme Court justices were among 
             those paying their respects Tuesday. Many mourners never 
             met Stennis but felt touched by his work.
               ``It's just a blessing that he had a record so long,'' 
             said Jimmie Evans of Jackson. ``I know the Lord guided his 
             work.''
               Stennis was only the second Mississippian to lie in 
             state at the Old Capitol this century. The first was J.P. 
             Coleman, Governor from 1956 to 1960, who died in September 
             1991.
                                          a
                     [From the Associated Press, April 26, 1995]
                    Longtime Senator Remembered as a Man of Faith
                                  (By Gina Holland)
               John C. Stennis, the Mississippi Democrat who gained 
             immense clout over military matters during 41 years in the 
             Senate, was remembered today as a ``man of faith.''
               About 300 people, including congressional leaders and an 
             emissary for President Clinton, attended a graveside 
             service. Stennis was buried on the crest of a hill, next 
             to his wife, at Pinecrest Cemetery.
               A single trumpeter played ``America the Beautiful'' as 
             mourners gathered around the wood casket draped with red 
             roses.
               Stennis died Sunday in Jackson after being hospitalized 
             for pneumonia. He was 93.
               Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), called 
             Stennis ``a very rare person'' who ``had much respect from 
             both the Republican side and the Democratic side. He was 
             viewed as a statesman.''
               The Reverend Jerry A. McBride of St. James Episcopal 
             Church in Jackson said Stennis was ``above all a man of 
             faith'' who ``saw his life, every day of it, as a way to 
             serve people.''
               Mack McLarty, Clinton's former chief of staff and now a 
             top Clinton adviser, represented the White House. Among 
             others at the funeral were Senators Trent Lott (R-MS), 
             Jesse Helms (R-NC), John Glenn (D-OH), and Sam Nunn (D-
             GA).
               ``He was not only a Christian gentleman, he was a great 
             man, a good man,'' said Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), who 
             served 30 years with Stennis. ``He taught a lot of us how 
             to be a senator.''
               The often loquacious Stennis earned a reputation in 
             Washington for finesse that earned him top committee 
             assignments and immense clout on military matters.
               In the 1950s and 1960s, he was known for his 
             segregationist views, but he supported extension of the 
             Voting Rights Act in 1983 and won strong support from 
             black voters when he ran his last campaign in 1982.
               Stennis joined the Senate in 1947 and retired in 1988. 
             After retiring, he moved to the Mississippi State 
             University campus to teach before failing health forced 
             him to move to a Madison nursing home.
               Stennis graduated from Mississippi State and the 
             University of Virginia Law School. He served as a district 
             attorney, circuit judge and Mississippi legislator before 
             running for the Senate.
                                          a
                      [From the Clarion-Ledger, April 26, 1995]
               Stennis Embodied Something Missing In Many Politicians
                                 (By Danny McKenzie)
               My brother has often told me that during his former 
             life, when he presided over a school in Kemper County, it 
             was not at all unusual for him to pick up the telephone in 
             his office and hear a familiar voice on the other end:
               ``Noooorman,'' Senator John C. Stennis would say. 
             ``Everything all right? Is there anything you need that I 
             can help you with? How's everybody gettin' along?''
               He always had time ``for a chat,'' Norman said, no 
             matter that it might take time away from his devotion to 
             national government. The situation back home was of equal, 
             or greater, importance to the United States Senator.
               Stennis was a firm believer in keeping in touch with his 
             constituents, my brother said, though the Senator would 
             never use such a 50-cent word to describe his friends back 
             in east Mississippi.
                                  longing for home
               He wanted to know what was going on, especially in 
             Kemper County, Norman told me. And Norman said it was 
             fairly easy to tell that even as influential and downright 
             powerful Stennis was in our Nation's capital, the Senator 
             definitely longed to be back home.
               My brother said he learned early during his tenure in 
             Stennis' home county that the Senator wanted to know the 
             truth--plain and simple, no sugar-coating.
               That yearning for honest information about Kemper County 
             came as no great surprise to Norman because he knew that 
             was the way John C. Stennis lived his life: plain and 
             simple, and uncompromisingly faithful to the truth.
               On this, the day Stennis is to be buried in his precious 
             Kemper County, we as a society need to heed the words 
             spoken about this man, this prototypical Southern 
             gentleman.
               Such terms as integrity, honesty, civility, loyalty, 
             morality, dignity. They all are accurate descriptions of 
             Stennis and they all describe the manner in which he lived 
             and worked.
               There are politicians and there are political leaders. 
             During his 41 years in the Senate, Stennis was among a 
             small group of the latter.
               There is a difference, and Stennis not only knew the 
             difference and understood the difference, he embodied it.
               Early in his career he was, as were most Southern 
             political leaders, a staunch segregationist. But Stennis 
             came to understand that the issue of racism was tearing 
             apart America and became an ardent supporter for equality.
               He did not change his ways because it was politically 
             popular--which, of course, it was not--but because it was 
             the right thing to do. Period.
               Therein lies the difference between a politician and a 
             political leader.
                                the inherent goodness
               Stennis was also a believer in the inherent goodness of 
             people, and by treating all people with respect he thereby 
             brought out the best in his fellow man.
               Those who knew him best will testify that Stennis' 
             demeanor was the same in the Senate and among his fellow 
             Senators as it was at his home and in his law office in 
             DeKalb.
               Here was a man who was not only loved and admired but 
             respected, truly respected, by all those with whom he 
             dealt. He was fair. He had integrity. He had style.
               Yet, today, it seems we have a group of politicians more 
             interested in forcing upon us their own agendas, with no 
             thought or concerns about the divisiveness or downright 
             destruction it foments in our society.
               The tragic part of today is not that John Stennis has 
             died, but that so too, it seems, have his qualities.
               What better way to honor the memory of one of the truly 
             great leaders of American government than to return to the 
             age of civility, to the age of common decency?
                                          a
                      [From the Meridian Star, April 26, 1995]
                          Stennis Comes Home For Final Time
                                  (By John Surratt)
                         dekalb pays homage to favorite son
               DEKALB--Like they did 13 years ago when he won his last 
             election to the U.S. Senate, Kemper County residents 
             turned out to welcome John Stennis home.
               More than 50 people lined the sidewalk leading to the 
             DeKalb Presbyterian Church to welcome the motorcade 
             bringing their favorite son home for the last time.
               After the casket bearing the former Senator was in 
             place, they entered the church and paid their final 
             respects to the man who many have called a great statesman 
             and a great American.
               Graveside services for Stennis were to be today at 11 
             a.m. at Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb.
               Stennis was a political contrast: a man who wielded 
             tremendous influence and commanded great respect in 
             Washington; the next door neighbor when he returned to the 
             hills and forests of Kemper County.
               ``He was probably the greatest Senator the United States 
             has ever known,'' Sue Harpole of Scooba said as she waited 
             for the motorcade.
               ``But he was just `John' to his neighbors when he was 
             here,'' Juanice Evans of DeKalb added.
               ``He was always a perfect gentleman,'' Harpole said. 
             ``Even when he lost his leg, he still stood up for a lady. 
             Harpole and Evans said county residents were saddened by 
             Stennis' death, but were also relieved because Stennis no 
             longer had to suffer physical pain.
               ``For years, I thought `Senator' was his first name,'' 
             Kemper County Supervisor Roy O. VanDevender said. ``I had 
             always seen him when I was little. Whenever he came 
             around, people would say, `There's Senator Stennis.' When 
             I was older, I realized what that title meant.''
               When he went to college at Mississippi State University, 
             VanDevender realized how important Stennis was.
               ``People would say, `You're from DeKalb?! That's where 
             Senator Stennis is from!' Around here, he was just a 
             friend. He was a part of the community.''
               Commercial Bank President Jeff McCoy was another DeKalb 
             resident who never knew about Stennis until he was older. 
             ``I'd deliver groceries to his house,'' he said. ``He was 
             Miss Coy's husband who worked in Washington.''
               McCoy said Stennis, who was a bank director, helped him 
             get his first bank stock. When Stennis was in town, McCoy 
             said, they would meet and discuss how the economy and 
             federal banking laws were affecting the local bank.
               VanDevender said one of the most important things 
             Stennis did for the county was to include it under the 
             umbrella of the Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal 
             agency that provides economic and other assistance to 
             State and local governments.
               Stennis once told him how he got the county in ARC. ``I 
             was driving him to Meridian one day, and as we drove 
             through the hills he asked me: `Do you know what these 
             hills are?' I told him I had no idea. `These are the 
             foothills of the Appalachians,' he said and he laughed.''
               ``Everything you hear about him is true,'' said Sterling 
             Davis, a former county justice of the peace and State 
             representative from Kemper.
               ``Before the cock crowed three times, John Stennis was 
             up and working,'' he said. ``He was outstanding. He ranks 
             up there with (Henry) Clay, (Daniel) Webster, (John C.) 
             Calhoun. He was probably a better Senator then (Lyndon) 
             Johnson or (John) Kennedy.
               ``He was a very complicated man; he had several things 
             going on in his head. He could talk with you and he would 
             come out with information about something that was going 
             on somewhere. It was just astounding how up-to-date he 
             was.''
               Davis said he went to Stennis on several occasions for 
             political advice.
               ``I went to him in 1956 to ask him who to vote for 
             Speaker of the (State) House between William Winter and 
             Walter Sellers,'' he said. ``He told me, `Voter for 
             Winter; you'll never regret it. He also said good things 
             about Mr. Sellers.'''
               Stennis, a former circuit judge, also gave Davis 
             judicial advice. He said, ``When you're a judge you have 
             to be careful, because what might seem like nothing to you 
             is very important to the people involved. Do your 
             homework.''
               Davis and VanDevender said Stennis was always current on 
             events back home. VanDevender remembered when Stennis 
             called him after he lost a 1983 race for justice court 
             judge.
               ``I was surprised that he even followed it,'' he said. 
             ``He told me, `What I really wanted to find out was how 
             you behaved. That's what I wanted to see.' ''
               VanDevender had congratulated his opponent to local 
             residents, he said.
               ``He would send me a letter on my anniversary every 
             year,'' Evans said. ``Not a form letter, a handwritten 
             letter.''
               ``If your child did something well in school, they 
             received a letter,'' Harpole said. ``That was something 
             very special.''
               When Stennis was home, he was cared for by several 
             people, including Jack Webb and Eli Burton and his wife 
             Maggie.
               Burton said his wife was the Stennis cook and 
             housekeeper for 50 years. He tended the Senator's yard for 
             20.
               ``If he told you anything, it was right,'' Burton said. 
             ``He was a fine fellow.''
               ``He was as good a person as anyone I've known in my 
             life,'' Webb said.
               Webb said Stennis would talk with him at times as he did 
             yard work. ``He always made sure I had plenty of water to 
             drink,'' he said.
               ``He was greatly loved here,'' Evans said. ``He will be 
             greatly missed.''
                                          a
                     [From the Associated Press, April 26, 1995]
                          Stennis Buried in Simple Ceremony
                                  (By Ron Harrist)
               John C. Stennis, a country lawyer who rose to one of the 
             most powerful positions in the U.S. Senate, was buried 
             Wednesday on a knoll in his hometown.
               About 300 people, including congressional leaders and an 
             emissary for President Clinton, attended a gravesite 
             service. Stennis was buried on a hill crest, next to his 
             wife, at Pinecrest Cemetery.
               A trumpeter played ``America the Beautiful'' as mourners 
             watched the dark wood coffin, draped with red roses.
               Stennis died Sunday of pneumonia at 93.
               The Mississippi Democrat once headed the Senate Armed 
             Services and Appropriation committees and, as Senate 
             President Pro Tempore, was third in line to the 
             Presidency.
               ``He was a Christian gentleman, a great man, a good 
             man,'' said Senator Robert Byrd, the West Virginia 
             Democrat who served 30 years in the Senate with Stennis.
               The Reverend Jerry McBride of St. James Episcopal Church 
             in Jackson said in his eulogy, ``We live in a cynical, 
             violent and self-centered world, but we know we can step 
             out of this madness by following the footsteps and example 
             of John Stennis.''
               Clinton adviser Mack McLarty represented the White 
             House.
               Stennis, elected to the Senate in 1947, was known in the 
             1950s and 1960s for segregationist rhetoric, but supported 
             extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1983 and won black 
             voters' support when he ran his last campaign in 1982.
               His reputation for finesse earned him top committee 
             assignments in Washington and the confidence of eight 
             Presidents.
               He retired in 1988, slowed by medical problems. He kept 
             close ties to the people of DeKalb.
               ``He set some standards for this state, some standards 
             for public service that will always stand,'' said former 
             Governor William Winter.
                                          a
                    [From the New Albany Gazette, April 26, 1995]
                        Character Judged By Stennis' Measure
                                   (By Sid Salter)
               Dignity. Integrity. Courage.
               For all who knew him, those words embody the life and 
             work of John Cornelius Stennis--son of Kemper County, MS, 
             and citizen of the world. In this century, it is his 
             life--public and private--that established the benchmark 
             by which the careers of all other political figures are 
             measured in this State. And on Capitol Hill, it was his 
             unyielding devotion to principle, character and humility 
             that became the measure of those who served with him there 
             in the U.S. Senate and that of those younger politicians 
             who followed him here in Mississippi.
               He made a simple promise as a young politician: ``I want 
             to plow a straight furrow to the end of my row.'' It was a 
             promise that a potential constituent of even the most 
             humble means in rural Mississippi could embrace and 
             understand. After winning election to the Senate in 1947, 
             he kept a small sign on his desk that spoke volumes to his 
             personal commitment to the people who sent him there: 
             ``Mississippi Comes First.''
               When death came to Stennis at the age of 93 on Sunday at 
             a Jackson hospital, the promise of his youth had been kept 
             and the commitment of his prime had been fulfilled--and a 
             62-year career in public service as a district attorney, 
             State representative, circuit judge and U.S. Senator 
             remained unblemished by scandal, untainted by personal 
             gain and unquestioned as a true statesman.
               History will record that few--if any--Mississippi public 
             servants have ever done more to tangibly change the face 
             of this State than did John Stennis. This State's largest 
             single employer--Ingall's Shipyard in Pascagoula--was a 
             product of sheer will and determination by the Senator.
               Yet Stennis remained in many ways an enigma to his 
             colleagues in Washington.
               For all the power he amassed, for all the clout he 
             wielded and for all the confidence placed in him by 
             occupants of the White House from Truman to Reagan, John 
             Stennis remained at the core a simple, humble country 
             lawyer from DeKalb, MS.
               He and Miss Coy maintained their modest white frame home 
             on Highway 39. When he would return home to Mississippi 
             and encounter someone he didn't recognize, he would 
             introduce himself: ``My name is John Stennis.''
               John Stennis never owned a credit card. He operated out 
             of a checkbook and his hip pocket. Former aides like to 
             tell of an incident one Sunday morning in Washington when 
             he took a large group of his staffers to church with him. 
             It seems the Senator was miffed when the collection plate 
             passed down the row and the staffers didn't put anything 
             in the plate.
               The next Sunday, he lined them up like children--passing 
             out dollar bills to each of them and insisting that they 
             put something in the church till that day.
               He never went out in public in less than his uniform--a 
             dark suit, immaculately--shined black shoes, a crisp white 
             shirt and a conservative necktie.
               He represented the poorest State in the Nation, and made 
             it his business and the Nation's business to relieve some 
             of that poverty. He succeeded arguably the State's most 
             ardent segregationists in the late U.S. Senator Theodore 
             Bilbo and for a time argued for that position himself, but 
             his change of heart on the issue came surely and 
             confidently in the mid-1960's as did the country's and for 
             the rest of his career he devoted himself to broadening 
             peace and understanding between black and white 
             Mississippians.
               Neither age, infirmity or the life-threatening results 
             of wounds he received in a 1973 robbery-shooting outside 
             his Washington home kept him from logging work days that 
             would have exhausted younger, stronger men.
               Mississippi State University never had a stronger, more 
             loyal or more beloved alumnus than John Stennis. There, 
             Congress established the John C. Stennis Center for Public 
             Service. Private donors established the John C. Stennis 
             Institute of Government, the John C. Stennis Chair in 
             Political Science and the John C. Stennis Scholarship in 
             Political Science.
               The Stennis Scholars produced at MSU represent an 
             eclectic group. Some are now political science professors. 
             Some are lawyers. Some are bureaucrats. Some have entered 
             public service and some have sought and won elective 
             office.
               Until infirmity forced the Senator into a retirement 
             home, all those scholars had an opportunity to interact 
             with John Stennis, to know him and to be influenced deeply 
             by him.
               And one of those former Stennis Scholars--one grateful 
             admirer who cherished the time he spent with John Stennis 
             and who believes deeply in the example of public service 
             he established in this State and Nation--is writing this 
             column.
                                          a
                    [From the New Albany Gazette, April 26, 1995]
                         Mississippi Loses Revered Statesman
                                (By Betty Jo Stewart)
               John Cornelius Stennis is dead.
               The 93-year-old Mississippian from DeKalb who served 
             four decades in the United States Senate, rose to 
             positions of national power and met personal crises with 
             strength and courage died Sunday. He was at St. Dominic/
             Jackson Memorial Hospital where he had been hospitalized 
             since Thursday. Stennis had pneumonia.
               Stennis had special ties to Union County. He had married 
             a native daughter, Coy Nebraska Hines, from a family of 12 
             children. She died in August 1983 after a marriage of 54 
             years.
               Graveside services for Stennis will be held at 11 a.m. 
             today at the Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb where he will be 
             buried.
               Stennis' body lay in state Tuesday morning at the Old 
             Capitol in Jackson and in the late afternoon at the DeKalb 
             Presbyterian Church.
               Stennis was born August 3, 1901 near DeKalb in Kemper 
             County, the son of Hampton Howell Stennis and Margaret 
             Cornelia Adams Stennis. He received a bachelor of science 
             degree in general science from the Mississippi A&M College 
             in Starkville, now Mississippi State University, in 1923. 
             He then attended the University of Virginia Law School 
             where he received a law degree and was elected to Phi Beta 
             Kappa.
               He practiced law at DeKalb and served from 1928-1932 as 
             a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives. On 
             December 24, 1929 he married Coy Hines, who was a Kemper 
             County home demonstration agent. He was a district 
             prosecuting attorney from 1931-1937.
               Their son, John Hampton Stennis, was born March 2, 1935 
             and their daughter Margaret Jane, November 20, 1937.
               In 1947, Stennis defeated five opponents to fill the 
             Senate vacancy caused by the death of Theodore G. Bilbo. 
             He had promised, ``I will plow a straight furrow right 
             down to the end of my row. This is my political 
             religion.''
               When he retired from the Senate in 1988, he was the 
             oldest member of the Senate. He had served with and had 
             close association with eight U.S. Presidents. In January 
             1969 he was named chairman of the Senate Armed Services 
             Committee and served as chairman through 1980. It was a 
             powerful role for Stennis.
               In 1987 he was chosen by his colleagues as President Pro 
             Tempore of the Senate, third in line of succession to the 
             Presidency.
               Stennis' power allowed him to affect favorable 
             legislation for Mississippi, the 234-mile Tennessee-
             Tombigbee Waterway being one of many.
               He courted death on several occasions. In 1973 he was 
             shot twice in a robbery attempt outside his home in 
             Washington, DC. In 1984 his left leg was amputated because 
             of a cancerous tumor.
               Stennis had faced his first serious challenge for his 
             seat in 1982 by Haley Barbour of Yazoo City, who now 
             chairs the Republican Party.
               In 1988 Stennis retired. He was honored by President 
             Reagan, members of Congress, military and business 
             leaders, Governor Ray Mabus and other Mississippians at a 
             Washington Hotel.
               At that occasion, Reagan announced that a nuclear-
             powered aircraft carrier would be named for Stennis. It 
             was christened at Newport News, Virginia in November 1993 
             and is to be commissioned this year.
               Also named for the Senator is NASA's National Space 
             Technology Laboratory in Hancock County.
               After his return to Mississippi, Stennis moved to the 
             campus of Mississippi State University. It is there that 
             the John C. Stennis Institute of Government and the 
             Stennis Center for Public Service, created by Congress, is 
             located.
               Stennis is remembered fondly by his brother-in-law, 
             Marvin Hines, 88, the only surviving member of the Hines 
             family.
               Hines said, ``He's the best in the world, an all-around 
             good man. I never found any fault with him in all my 
             years.''
               At family reunions, Hines recalled, ``He always made a 
             speech.''
               Hines visited DeKalb as long as the Stennis family was 
             there.
               Hines was unable to attend the funeral services due to 
             his wife's illness and his declining health; however other 
             family members and friends did go.
                    [From the Indiannapolis News, April 27, 1995]
                                    John Stennis
                                     (Editorial)
               In the more than 40 years that he served in the U.S. 
             Senate, few men received more respect than Mississippi's 
             John Stennis.
               A courtly Southerner from the old school, he was called 
             the conscience of the Senate because of his religious 
             convictions and his commitment to upholding ethical 
             standards for public officials.
               He was unfailingly civil with those who disagreed with 
             him and maintained friendships that transcended 
             ideological and party ties.
               He was a good man.
               But a good man often can serve a bad cause. Stennis 
             certainly did.
               He was one of the roadblocks on the journey to end 
             institutionalized racial discrimination in this country. 
             For nearly a quarter century, Stennis opposed every civil 
             rights measure or activity that came before the country.
               He condemned the 1954 Brown vs. Topeka Board of 
             Education Supreme Court decision that ended school 
             segregation. He resisted attempts to pass anti-lynching 
             bills and measures that would end the discriminatory poll 
             tax and literacy tests for black voters. He voted against 
             the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 
             1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
               When it came to race, he was wrong, wrong, wrong.
               This is one of the abiding ironies of history.
               Lyndon Johnson came to the U.S. Senate about the same 
             time that Stennis did. Johnson, on a personal level, was 
             not nearly as admirable or decent as Stennis was. Johnson 
             could be cruel, vindictive and mean-spirited. He bent or 
             broke the rules repeatedly. He was not a good man.
               But he did serve a good cause. Even though Stennis was a 
             better man, in presiding over the end of legalized 
             segregation, Johnson did more to advance the greater good.
               To his credit, Stennis eventually saw the light. In 
             1983, near the end of his long career, he voted to extend 
             the Voting Rights Act.
               It was a moment that not only ultimately ennobled his 
             years of public service, but illustrated the ways in which 
             the path of virtue ultimately will be illuminated for men 
             of good will.
               And John Stennis certainly was a man of good will.
               Stennis died earlier this week. He was 93.
               He will be remembered as a man of conscience and grace. 
             He was a champion in many of America's great struggles, 
             and he will be mourned as a man who always sought to find 
             the best in others and ultimately found it in himself as 
             well.
                                          a
               [From the Commercial Appeal (Memphis), April 27, 1995]
               Stennis Memorialized as ``A Great Man,'' Last Respects 
                                  Paid to Statesman
                                  (By Ron Harrist)
               John Cornelius Stennis, a simple country lawyer who 
             became one of the nation's most powerful men, was buried 
             Wednesday on a knoll in the red clay of his beloved 
             hometown.
               Gathered in a loose circle around the gravesite at the 
             Pinecrest Cemetery, colleagues, relatives and friends 
             shared favorite anecdotes about the man who once headed 
             the U.S. Senate Armed Services and Appropriations 
             committees and as Senate President Pro Tempore was third 
             in line to the Presidency.
               Stennis died Sunday of pneumonia in a Jackson hospital 
             at age 93. He was buried among family members and next to 
             his wife, Coy, who died in 1983.
               ``We live in a cynical, violent and self-centered world, 
             but we know we can step out of this madness by following 
             the footsteps and example of John Stennis,'' Reverend 
             Jerry McBride of St. James Episcopal Church in Jackson 
             said during the eulogy.
               ``He was a Christian gentleman, a great man, a good 
             man,'' said Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), the first person 
             off two chartered buses that carried a delegation from 
             Washington.
               ``If I could express the feelings of many of us, he 
             taught a lot of us how to be a senator,'' said Byrd, who 
             served 30 years with Stennis in the U.S. Senate.
               Stennis, a graduate of Mississippi State University and 
             the University of Virginia Law School, was elected to the 
             Senate in 1947 and kept close ties to the people of 
             DeKalb, a poor farming community, and surrounding Kemper 
             County. They first elected him to public office in 1928 as 
             a member of the Mississippi Legislature. He later served 
             as a district attorney and circuit judge.
               ``He set some standards for this state, some standards 
             for public service that will always stand,'' said former 
             governor William Winter.
               Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), who led the 
             Washington delegation, said Stennis was ``a very rare 
             person'' who ``had much respect from both the Republican 
             side and the Democratic side. He was viewed as a 
             statesman.''
               Mack McLarty, former chief of staff to President Clinton 
             and now a top Clinton adviser, represented the White 
             House.
               Stennis retired from the Senate in 1988 after being 
             slowed by medical problems complicated by losing a leg to 
             cancer and suffering a gunshot wound during an attack 
             outside his Washington residence.
               In the nation's capital, Stennis gained a reputation for 
             finesse that earned him top committee assignments and the 
             confidence of eight Presidents.
               In the 1950s and 1960s, Stennis was known for his 
             segregationist rhetoric, but he supported extension of the 
             Voting Rights Act in 1983 and won the support of black 
             voters when he ran his last campaign in 1982.
               Jeannie Howard, at 81 the oldest member of the Stennis 
             family and the late Senator's only niece, said it was only 
             fitting that the ceremony was held in the April sunshine 
             just a few blocks from where Stennis once served sodas at 
             his brother's drug store.
               ``He loved his family and he loved these people,'' said 
             Mrs. Howard, of Waco, Texas.
               More than 300 people attending the ceremony silently 
             watched over the dark wood casket, draped with red roses, 
             as a single trumpeter played ``America the Beautiful.'' 
             The sound echoed across nearby hillsides.
               John Hampton Stennis of Jackson recalled his father's 
             love for the land in a eulogy, saying, ``My sister and I 
             think my father had a pact with God to guide his plow and 
             keep his furrow straight.''
               When the crowd began to overflow the small cemetery, 
             residents in this town of 1,073 stood on street corners to 
             watch the service.
               One local resident drove near the cemetery ``just to let 
             the Senator know I care,'' but was politely turned away by 
             police.
                                          a
                      [From the Clarion-Ledger, April 27, 1995]
                          Five Hundred Bid Stennis Farewell
                    former senator remembered as patriot, friend
                                 (By Emily Wagster)
               DeKALB--A long trumpeter played America the Beautiful 
             Wednesday as 500 gathered in the rolling red-clay hills of 
             east Mississippi to remember former U.S. Senator John C. 
             Stennis.
               A political stalwart once third in line to the 
             Presidency, Stennis died of pneumonia Sunday in Jackson at 
             age 93. He was buried in his hometown next to his wife, 
             Coy, who died in 1983.
               Family, friends and local folks mingled with Stennis' 
             former Washington colleagues for a humble, half-hour 
             graveside service at Pinecrest Cemetery.
               ``Senator Stennis was a true hero,'' said U.S. Senator 
             John Glenn (D-OH).
               Stennis served 41 years in the Senate, retiring in 1988. 
             He was Armed Services chairman during the tumultuous years 
             of the Vietnam War. In 1987, he became chairman of the 
             powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and was chosen by 
             his colleagues as President Pro Tempore, putting him third 
             in line in Presidential succession.
               The late Senator's son, John Hampton Stennis of Jackson, 
             remembered his father as a devoted public servant and 
             patriot. During World War II, when the elder Stennis was 
             district attorney and circuit judge in Kemper County, he 
             made sure his children understood their responsibilities 
             as Americans.
               ``Daddy taught us patriotic things and poetry,'' John 
             Hampton Stennis said as his sister, Margaret Womble sat 
             nearby. ``In teaching us the Pledge of Allegiance to the 
             flag, he made sure we understood the meaning.''
               About 20 Senators and Congressmen, including 
             Mississippi's U.S. Senators Thad Cochran and Trent Lott 
             and 3d District U.S. Representative Sonny Montgomery, flew 
             in from Washington. White House senior adviser Mack 
             McLarty attended on behalf of President Clinton.
               Military leaders, congressional staff members and 
             spouses brought the Washington delegation to about 100.
               ``The fact that there were so many people here shows 
             exactly the high regard they have for their former 
             colleague,'' said former Mississippi Governor William 
             Winter, who started his political as a Stennis legislative 
             assistant.
               Governor Kirk Fordice, Lt. Governor Eddie Briggs, 
             Secretary of State Dick Molpus, Auditor Steve Patterson 
             and other State officials traveled from Jackson. 
             Legislators came from around Mississippi.
               After the funeral, U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA), 
             recalled that a promise Stennis made helped him win a 
             Senate seat in 1972. After Nunn won the Democratic primary 
             for the Senate seat in Georgia, he visited Washington with 
             his great uncle, a former House Armed Services Committee 
             chairman. They called on Stennis--and the Mississippi 
             Democrat pledged he'd get Nunn a seat on Armed Services.
               Nunn went back and told folks what Stennis said. He 
             believes that helped him win.
               ``There's a saying that eagles don't flock. You find 
             them one at a time,'' Nunn said. ``John Stennis was an 
             eagle.''
               Nunn praised Stennis' work as chairman of the Select 
             Committee on Standards and Conduct. ``He was the very 
             essence of integrity and character,'' Nunn said.
               Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), said Stennis won the respect 
             of Republicans and Democrats alike.
               Helms first met Stennis in the early 1950s, when Stennis 
             was already a Senator and Helms was in Washington as 
             administrative assistant to U.S. Senator Willis Smith and 
             Alton Lennon.
               ``When I lost my mind and ran for Senate in 1972, he 
             made calls up to North Carolina unbeknownst to me,'' Helms 
             said. ``He gave me encouragement when I needed it.''
               Stennis was shot by robbers outside his Washington home 
             in 1973, and Helms recalls that the Mississippi Senator 
             handled himself with dignity. Helms went to visit Stennis 
             in Walter Reed Hospital, and when he arrived there was a 
             delay.
               A nurse came out and told Helms, ``He doesn't want to 
             see anybody unless he has his coat and tie on.'' Sure 
             enough, Helms was let into Stennis' room a few minutes 
             later, and there sat Stennis in coat and tie.
               John Hampton Stennis recalled that the book One Hundred 
             and One Famous Poems sat on the family coffee table when 
             he was growing up, and several of the poems remind him 
             still of his father.
               One is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's A Psalm of Life, 
             which includes the stanza:
                  ``Lives of great men all remind us
                  ``We can make our lives sublime,
                  ``And, departing, leave behind us
                  ``Footprints on the sands of time.''
                                          a
                     [From the Washington Times, April 28, 1995]
                         Justice to a Just Man: John Stennis
                                  (By R.J. Woosley)
               The obituaries of Senator John Stennis, who died on 
             Sunday, list his accomplishments and positions, but the 
             reasons for the great honor and affection with which he 
             was almost universally regarded can only be understood if 
             viewed through a somewhat finer and more personal filter.
               Mr. Stennis was at the height of his power in the summer 
             of 1970 when he began a job interview with a nervous young 
             Army captain by asking a big question. About to complete 
             my 2 years of active duty, I was applying for a job on the 
             staff of the Armed Services Committee, which he chaired. 
             ``How do you think we ought to deal with the military?'' 
             he asked. I looked puzzled, not sure what he was driving 
             at. ``Well,'' he rescued me, ``I think we ought to be sort 
             of like a father . . . but an old-fashioned father, don't 
             you see? They're good people and they're trying to do 
             something very important, so you have to help them and 
             take care of them, but sometimes they ask for too much and 
             you have to be ready with a tight rein.''
               During the 3 years that I worked for him, John Stennis' 
             old-fashioned father formula came to the fore again and 
             again. But his exercise of fatherly duties--both to care 
             for and to guide--did not stop with the nation's armed 
             forces. He dealt with much of the rest of the world from 
             that combined perspective of affection and 
             responsibility--junior Senators, his staff, sometimes 
             whole nations.
               Once, early in my time with him, I began to describe my 
             draft of a bill by explaining the probable political 
             effect and likely media treatment if he submitted it. He 
             interrupted, ``Jim, first help me understand my duty 
             here--then we'll worry about all that other.''
               On another occasion, a staff member of Senator William 
             Proxmire's gave me advance notice of a forthcoming speech 
             of his that would attack the committee's approval of the 
             Navy's restructuring of the F-14 fighter contract. I told 
             the staffer that I thought I should give Mr. Stennis a 
             heads-up; he had no objection.
               When I told Mr. Stennis about the forthcoming speech, he 
             turned grave, asked me to sit down, and began carefully, 
             ``I always want you to tell me what you can honorably tell 
             me, but I don't know about this . . .'' It took me a few 
             seconds to realize that his worry was not about the 
             aircraft program, or the political battle that was 
             brewing, or the press attention Mr. Proxmire would get, 
             but rather that I might be violating a confidence with 
             someone on Mr. Proxmire's staff by telling him. I assured 
             him that this wasn't the case, and he said, ``Well, that's 
             all right then,'' and changed the subject--clearly 
             relieved that he hadn't had to explain to me that he did 
             not expect his staff to break promises of confidentiality 
             to their counterparts in order to keep him informed.
               When the Nixon administration agreed that Okinawa should 
             revert to Japan, opposition began to develop in the 
             Senate. It was clear to everyone that, if Mr. Stennis 
             joined in, he could very well bring along enough votes to 
             sink the reversion treaty. In part because of a favorite 
             relative who had died on the Bataan Death March, in part 
             because of disputes about textile imports, he did not 
             ordinarily go out of his way to befriend Japan. But once 
             he received what he finally decided were adequate 
             assurances about continued U.S. access to military bases 
             on Okinawa, he agreed to support the treaty. After 
             announcing his decision, in a straightforward and 
             unremarkable staff-drafted speech, Mr. Stennis glanced at 
             the Senate press gallery, jammed with Japanese faces. His 
             final words, impromptu, were all his own.
               Southerners, he observed, knew something about being 
             defeated and occupied. The United States had been in 
             Okinawa for just over a quarter of a century as an army of 
             occupation, and it was not fair to the Japanese for us to 
             perpetuate that role--it was our duty not to remain an 
             occupying power there any longer than truly necessary.
               He considered carefully what was fair and just for all 
             his children--four-star generals, staff members, the 
             people of Japan.
               Honor. Duty. Fair. Just.
               Big words. An old-fashioned father's words.
               John Stennis' words.
                                          a
                   [From the Commercial Dispatch, April 30, 1995]
                      Senator Stennis Plowed A Straight Furrow
                                (By Charles Harmond)
               I was sitting at home last Sunday watching the evening 
             news when the talking head said that retired sports 
             commentator Howard Cosell had died. This was followed by 
             the announcement that former U.S. Senator John C. Stennis 
             of Mississippi had also died that Sunday.
               The order of those two bits of news struck me as 
             somewhat odd and rather sad.
               The death and usually entertaining sports commentator 
             was considered to be more newsworthy than the passing of 
             the man who had earned (notice that I said earned) the 
             nickname ``conscience of the Senate.''
               It saddens me that this country seems to affix more 
             importance to the life of a television sportscaster than 
             it does to the life of a man who served the U.S. Senate, 
             indeed this State and the entire Nation, with dignity, 
             honesty and competence for more than 40 years.
               Of course, that news program did originate in New York 
             City. The people who really matter, the people who live in 
             places with names like DeKalb, Okolona, Aberdeen and 
             Columbus, know differently. If that news story had come 
             out of one of those places, it would have been ordered 
             differently. The death of Howard Cosell, not the Senator, 
             would have appeared in the ``oh, by the way'' category.
               On only two occasions did my path cross that of the man 
             who was chosen by his peers to chair the first Senate 
             Ethics Committee.
               The first was perhaps 15 years ago at a Mississippi 
             State football game. It was homecoming and in those days 
             the Senator always returned to his alma mater to crown the 
             homecoming queen. This particular year, he happened to 
             have seats just below where I was sitting.
               A young boy of perhaps 10 or 12 sat down next to the 
             great man and proceeded to question him at length about 
             the workings of the national government. For 15 or 20 
             minutes Senator Stennis patiently answered the boy's 
             questions while older men, men old enough to vote for him, 
             waited impatiently for their turn to speak to the Senator.
               It obviously did not matter. The questions from the 
             earnest young man were as important to the Senator as were 
             the comments of the older people waiting. It takes a truly 
             tall man to lower himself to the level of a child. Senator 
             Stennis was a truly tall man.
               Our paths crossed again in 1988 when I had the pleasure 
             of attending the Stennis Retirement Dinner in Washington, 
             DC.
               I happened to sit beside the military doctor who had 
             been assigned to treat Senator Stennis after he was 
             wounded in a robbery attempt. It was during the Watergate 
             era and the doctor said that he had to follow Stennis all 
             over Washington because the Senator refused to say 
             hospitalized while his wounds healed. He had to be about 
             the business of government and could not afford the luxury 
             of time to recuperate.
               The speaker at the affair, honoring the retiring 
             Democrat, was Republican President Ronald Reagan. The room 
             was full of Republicans and Democrats, Mississippians and 
             Washingtonians, blacks and whites, men and women, the rich 
             and powerful and ordinary folks like me. All there to pay 
             tribute to the Conscience of the Senate.
               That dinner epitomizes the type of man that was John C. 
             Stennis. Equally comfortable with the powerful and the 
             ordinary, black or white, Democrat or Republican.
               In this age when the word ``crooked'' all too often 
             precedes the word ``politician,'' Senator Stennis stood 
             out like a tall oak tree in a field of weeds.
               I still have the program that was printed for that 
             retirement dinner. Upon hearing of Stennis' death, I dug 
             it out. It was titled simply and appropriately ``John C. 
             Stennis--Celebration of a Legend''.
               The flyleaf contained the following quote written in 
             1947 during his initial race for the U.S. Senate: ``I want 
             to plow a straight furrow down to the end of the row. This 
             is my political religion, and I have lived by it too long 
             to abandon it now. I base my appeal to you on this simple 
             creed, and with it I shall rise or fall.''
               Senator Stennis, you did plow a straight furrow row 
             until you reached the end of the row. You will be missed.
                                          a
             [Lagniappe, NASA Aeronautics and Space Administration, May 
                                      25, 1995]
              U.S. Senator John C. Stennis: He Was a Giant In Every Way
                  (By Mack Herring, Stennis Space Center Historian)
               U.S. Senator John C. Stennis, an American statesman who 
             spent most of his extraordinary life in devoted service to 
             his God, his country, and his fellowman, came to ``the end 
             of his row'' April 23 when he quietly died in a Jackson 
             Mississippi hospital at the age of 93.
               The namesake of this NASA space center, Stennis left 
             such a mark on the history and direction of the Nation 
             that his presence will be felt for many generations to 
             come. He was a national leader who served with eight 
             Presidents and earned the respect of admiring colleagues 
             in the Senate during 41 years of dedicated service.
               Because of his steadfast commitment to honesty and 
             virtue in government, Stennis became known as the 
             ``conscience of the U.S. Senate.'' He was referred to as 
             ``Mr. Integrity, the embodiment of honor and fairness,'' 
             by the Washington Star and served as chairman of the 
             Senate Ethics Committee. At the time of his retirement, 
             Stennis was chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations 
             Committee. The Senator was honored by his colleagues in 
             the 100th Congress when they unanimously elected him 
             President Pro Tempore of the Senate, an office that placed 
             him third in succession to the Presidency.
               Before leaving Washington, Stennis left an indelible 
             mark of his attention to duty when he cast his 11,595th 
             vote in the U.S. Senate. No other Senator had cast that 
             number of votes in the history of that body.
               His achievements spanned over 60 years of service in 
             public office, beginning when he was first elected to the 
             Mississippi House of Representatives in 1928. This record 
             of continuous service stands as a national record. The 
             people's approval of this service is evidenced by the fact 
             that Stennis never lost an election.
               Stennis Space Center Director Roy Estess, who worked 
             closely with the Senator and his staff, captured the 
             essence of Stennis' lasting influence on the country and 
             this center when he said, ``It is impossible for me to 
             adequately express my respect for and gratitude to 
             Stennis. He was a giant in every way who only wanted to 
             serve people. While serving, he shaped the course of 
             history and touched all of our lives. Stennis Space Center 
             is but one manifestation of his great vision.''
               Employees of Stennis Space Center can look with pride at 
             their association with this installation named for the 
             courtly gentleman from Kemper County, MS. Stennis' 
             commitment to hard work, excellence and morality was best 
             summed up in the words of a simple folk poem that he 
             adopted as his political creed in his first bid for the 
             U.S. Senate in 1947. He said: ``I want to plow a straight 
             furrow right down to the end of the row. This is my 
             political religion, and I have lived by it too long to 
             abandon it now. I base my appeal to you on this simple 
             creed, and with it I shall rise or fall.''
               Indeed, the mark of his work in support of America's 
             preeminence in space and his commitment to a strong 
             national defense is engraved throughout Stennis Space 
             Center. Stennis' involvement with America's space program 
             and this center can be traced to the installation's 
             genesis.
               He was deeply troubled in 1957 when the Soviets became 
             first in space with the launch of their Sputnik satellite, 
             and Stennis worked tirelessly with then-U.S. Senator 
             Lyndon Johnson and others to strengthen military programs. 
             He also helped in the formation of NASA, as a federal 
             agency in 1958.
               Because of Stennis' influence in the Congress and the 
             respect that he commanded from both political parties, 
             President John Kennedy personally called on the Senator to 
             support the Apollo lunar landing program and the Nation's 
             bid to gain preeminence in space. Stennis believed the 
             advancement of the space program was a centerpiece in 
             America's Cold War against the Soviet Union, and he never 
             wavered in his support.
               When NASA announced in 1961 that it would build a test 
             facility for the giant Saturn V rockets in Hancock County, 
             Mississippi, Stennis was called on to explain the reasons 
             for the massive undertaking to the people who had to give 
             up their land for the project. In a historic speech at 
             Logtown on All Saints Day in 1961, Stennis eloquently 
             expressed the overriding national need.
               ``There is always the thorn before the rose . . . you 
             have got to make some sacrifices, but you will be taking 
             part in greatness,'' he said. One lady in the outdoor 
             audience asked, ``Senator Stennis, why must we go to the 
             moon?'' In a serious and somber voice, the Senator 
             answered, ``For international prestige.''
               Years later, after witnessing a static firing at SSC, 
             Stennis observed, ``This fine facility has worked out far 
             beyond our expectations, and certainly it will have a 
             future in our formidable space program. No one can know 
             what the future will be, but it is unthinkable that we 
             will abandon the space program after proving our mastery 
             of space. We can no more neglect space than we can air, 
             land or the sea. If we did, we would soon be a second-rate 
             nation.''
               The late Dr. James C. Fletcher, who twice served as NASA 
             administrator, acknowledged that Stennis was the most 
             influential and significant supporter of the national 
             space program. Fletcher pointed to Stennis' staunch 
             support of the Space Shuttle and said that the Senator's 
             work as chairman of the Appropriations Committee, just 
             before he retired, ``saved'' the Space Station.
               On May 20, 1988, President Ronald Reagan honored Stennis 
             by issuing an executive order designating the South 
             Mississippi installation in his name. The President's 
             executive order read, ``Senator John C. Stennis has served 
             his country for over 40 years and has steadfastly 
             supported the Nation's space program since its inception. 
             He has demonstrated visionary leadership and has 
             consistently worked to assure United States world 
             leadership and preeminence in space.''
               Likewise, as chairman of the Senate Armed Services 
             Committee (1969-1980), Stennis stood firm for U.S. 
             military superiority. He fought and won many battles on 
             the floor of the Senate on behalf of American military men 
             and women. A strong Navy, second to none in the world, was 
             always at the top of stennis' agenda. He was frequently 
             referred to as the ``Father of America's Modern Navy.''
               Reagan depended on Stennis to be his ``stalwart'' for 
             establishing a strong national defense in the waning years 
             of the Cold War. At a testimonial dinner honoring Stennis, 
             Reagan announced that nuclear aircraft carrier CVN-74 
             would bear his name. In the announcement, Reagan compared 
             the Senator to a ``great ship of the line, possessed of a 
             high sense of purpose.''
               The great carrier was christened November 11, 1983, and 
             is scheduled to be launched late this year. Stennis 
             retired from the Senate in 1988 and returned to teach at 
             Mississippi State University, his alma mater. Those close 
             to him said he continued to apply his principles of hard 
             work to the new task, spending hours preparing his 
             lectures.
               More than 500 friends and admirers gathered at Pinecrest 
             Cemetery in the Senator's hometown of DeKalb, MS, where he 
             was buried near his family, next to his wife Coy, who died 
             in 1983. More than 20 of his former colleagues in the 
             Senate were in the number. Many of them paid tribute to 
             the Senator from Mississippi, but none more eloquently 
             than one of his neighbors, Jane McWilliams, who operated a 
             country store. She said, ``He never forgot where he came 
             from. Never. I think that is important.
               The John C. Stennis CVN-74 aircraft carrier seal implies 
             peace through strength, just as Stennis was referred to as 
             an ``unwavering advocate of peace through strength'' by 
             President Ronald Reagan when naming the ship in June 1988.
               The characteristics of the seal are significant in many 
             ways: The four gold bands (on the outside of the seal) and 
             eight ties denote Stennis' four decades in the Senate and 
             the eight Presidents with whom he served; the seven stars 
             in the border represent his seven terms in the Senate and 
             characterize the USS John C. Stennis as the seventh NIMITZ 
             class aircraft carrier; the 20 stars represent 
             Mississippi, the twentieth state; the eagle and shield 
             represent those overlooking the Old Senate Chamber; and 
             the three arrows in the eagle's talons symbolize the three 
             decades he served on the Senate Armed Services and 
             Appropriations committees.
               The carrier, cutting her powerful swathe through the 
             sea, exemplifies Stennis' philosophy of ``look ahead'' and 
             his pledge to ``plow a straight furrow down to the end of 
             the row.'' Embodied in the ship are the principles Stennis 
             upheld in his service to America--honor, courage and 
             commitment. The seal was approved in February 1995 by his 
             daughter, Margaret Stennis Womble, and his daughter-in-
             law, Mrs. John Hampton Stennis.

                                
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