[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 16, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 16, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1020
 
                   TRIBUTE TO VIRGINIA CLINTON KELLEY

  (Mr. DICKEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DICKEY. Mr. Speaker, this time is dedicated to the memory of one 
of my constituents, Virginia Clinton Kelley. She was born Virginia 
Cassidy on June 6, 1923, in Bodcaw, AR, a small community about 12 
miles from Hope. She died of cancer on June 6, 1993.
  Virginia graduated from Hope High School in 1941 and went on to 
nursing school in Shreveport, LA, where she met and married William 
Jefferson Blythe III. Their son, William Jefferson Blythe IV who is now 
our President was born on August 19, 1946, a few months after his 
father died in an automobile accident.
  Virginia obtained her certification as a nurse anesthetist at Charity 
Hospital in New Orleans. She then married Roger Clinton. Their family 
moved to Hot Springs, AR, in the early fifties where her second son, 
Roger, was born July 25, 1956. She worked as a nurse in Hot Springs 
until her retirement in 1981.
  Virginia is survived by her husband, a very fine man by the name of 
Richard Kelley, of Hot Springs, and her two sons, Bill and Roger 
Clinton, and one grandchild, Chelsea Clinton.
  The best quote was given by Melissa Gassaway, editor of the local Hot 
Springs paper, after her death: ``Change was a constant in Virginia 
Kelley's life, yet she refused to be transformed by events large and 
small, catastrophic or euphoric, into someone she was not.'' Melissa 
has also said that Virginia was the ``best ambassador that Hot Springs 
has ever had.''
  At her funeral she was described as an American original; she was and 
she stayed that way. She never let anything discourage her and she was 
brave at all times, even in death. To me she was a friend who accepted 
me even though we were of different parties, and she gave me 
encouragement. We will miss her.

                          ____________________