[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.