[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 15, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 15, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    THE DEATH OF MARY ELLEN MONRONEY

  Mr. BOREN. Mr. President, in early May, the State of Oklahoma lost 
one of its finest citizens, and the U.S. Senate family lost one of its 
most beloved members with the death of Mary Ellen Monroney. For many of 
us from Oklahoma and indeed, for many Senators and their spouses, 
having Mary Ellen Monroney as a friend was like having a second mother 
in Washington.
  She was the widow of the late Oklahoma Senator A.S. [Mike] Monroney 
who was for three decades an outstanding member of the Congress and the 
architect of the post World War II reform of this institution.
  Mary Ellen Monroney was a remarkable person in her own right. She was 
a confidant and adviser to First Ladies, Presidents, foreign leaders, 
and diplomats. She set high standards for herself and never compromised 
them. She was full of courage, spirit, and determination. The trials of 
life never defeated her. Complete honesty was her trademark and to say 
that she was candid was an understatement. It is no wonder that young 
people especially were drawn to her and were inspired by her example, 
her standards, and her spunk. She was herself forever young, forever 
open to new ideas, forever curious and learning more each day.
  I was deeply honored to be asked by her son, Mike Monroney, Jr., and 
her family to share a few words about her at a memorial service at the 
National Cathedral on May 10, 1994. Mr. President, I know that I speak 
for all Members of the Senate when I extend our sincere sympathy to the 
Monroney family and our gratitude for the friendship and life of Mary 
Ellen Monroney.
  I ask unanimous consent that the text of my remarks at the memorial 
service be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the remarks were ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

  Remarks of Senator David L. Boren at the Memorial Service for Mary 
 Ellen Monroney, Bethlehem Chapel, Washington National Cathedral, May 
                                10, 1994

       We come together today to pay tribute to a truly remarkable 
     person, Mary Ellen Monroney. We come to console each other 
     especially Mike Jr., Michael, Erin, Alice, and Susanna, her 
     son and grandchildren, all of whom she loved very much.
       We will all miss her. To many of us, as DeVier Pierson told 
     an audience in Oklahoma over the weekend, she was our second 
     mother; our mother in Washington. We'll miss her terribly--
     her wit, her curiosity--her commentary on the world around 
     us.
       But, we also come today to celebrate. We know today that 
     heaven is not a boring place with Mary Ellen there. We 
     chuckle as we think that Our Heavenly Father had better not 
     ask Mary Ellen's opinion on any subject if He isn't prepared 
     to hear it straight out.
       Recalling the special feature in the Readers' Digest, there 
     are many who would say that ``Mary Ellen was my most 
     unforgettable character.''
       One of her closet friends, Mary Eddy Jones of Oklahoma 
     City, said to me recently that Mary Ellen was teaching all of 
     us how to die and she did by facing her last illness with 
     courage, dignity, and incredible grace.
       Above all, she taught us how to live. So many of us seem to 
     keep waiting to live. We put it off. We plan to really live 
     some time in the future. Mary Ellen always lived in the 
     present. She found zest in every moment. She prepared for the 
     future and she especially cared about young people, but she 
     enjoyed the preparation itself.
       Mary Ellen was adventuresome. I wasn't surprised to hear 
     Michael tell the story of his grandmother's urging him to 
     walk up the gangplank of a foreign ship to look around.
       She was descended from pioneers who made the 1889 land run 
     in Oklahoma. Mary Ellen had tremendous energy and a childlike 
     curiosity about everything around her.
       Who else would have taken an African safari at the age of 
     86?
       Who else would have gotten a speeding ticket at age 85 for 
     driving herself 90 miles per hour passing over the Italian 
     Alps to visit her friend Lady Bird Johnson who is here with 
     us this morning?
       She lived an exciting life filled with the events of times. 
     If she and her mother had not overstayed their time in Europe 
     by shopping too long, she would have been a passenger on the 
     fatal Titanic voyage on which she had a ticket. With Mary 
     Ellen looking over his shoulder and giving him orders, the 
     captain might never have hit the iceberg. She danced with 
     Fred Astaire who complimented her as a dance partner. She was 
     a frequent guest at the polo outings of Will Rogers. She was 
     even offered a movie contract by Samuel Goldwyn. Hollywood 
     would never have been the same had she accepted.
       Mary Ellen had many wonderful qualities. She was 
     determined. Having heard the former governor of New 
     Hampshire, John Winant suggest to husband Mike that he should 
     run for Congress, Mary Ellen didn't stop until he ran in 
     spite of the fact that he had no intention of doing so. When 
     he balked, she leaked his candidacy to the newspaper and got 
     so many of his friends to ask him to become a candidate that 
     he finally did so.
       Her honesty was legendary. Senator Monroney once advised 
     her merely to say ``Indeed! Indeed!'' when confronted with a 
     controversial statement so that no one could quote her 
     comment on either side of the issue. As we all know, Mary 
     Ellen never said ``Indeed! Indeed!'' in her entire life.
       Her openness was constantly refreshing. Once when she was 
     in a dispute with a famous Washington hostess, Mary Ellen was 
     in a group of women who were discussing the person in 
     question in an unfavorable light. Finally one spoke up 
     attempting to be somewhat kind and said ``Well, the poor dear 
     is her own worst enemy.'' To which Mary Ellen replied, ``Not 
     when I'm around she isn't.''
       She had high standards and was a perfectionist, whether she 
     was giving a dinner party or learning all she could about an 
     issue.
       She was a loyal and caring friend driving friends to the 
     hospital, visiting those who needed her and helping her 
     former employees long after they had retired.
       She could be very sensitive beneath her outward manner. 
     Susanna talked about how her grandmother often squeezed her 
     hand under the table at dinner parties and she felt her love 
     and strength. We have all felt it in crucial moments.
       She was a mentor to countless Senate wives and an advisor 
     and confidant to many including First Ladies Bess Truman, 
     Barbara Bush, and Lady Bird Johnson.
       She took time for young people and always spoke to my 
     college interns from Oklahoma each summer. Venturing into a 
     controversial area, she would pause and say, ``Well, I 
     shouldn't tell you about that.'' The students would beg, ``Oh 
     please Mrs. Monroney, tell us!'' She always relented.
       And so today we celebrate the life of a truly unforgettable 
     character--an unforgettable friend, mother and grandmother.
       A person known as Mary Ellen, George Miksch Sutton, a 
     professor at the University of Oklahoma, was a great 
     ornithologist, scholar, painter, and poet. Near the end of 
     his life, he wrote some words which I want to share with you:

     A very little time shall pass--
     A white-crowned sparrow's song or two, a rustle in the 
           grass--
     Ere I shall die: ere that which now is grief and sense of 
           loss
     And emptiness unbearable shall vanish
     As curved reflections vanish with the shattering of a glass.

     By the wind shall be scattered
     Up and down the land,
     By strong waves strewn along the farthest shore;
     No part of the dear world shall I not reach and, reaching, 
           understanding,
     No thing that I have loved shall I not love and more.

     No bird of passage shall fly north or south
     Breasting the stiff wind or pushing through the fog,
     But I shall be there, feeling the deep urge
     That drives it otherwhere at summer's ending,
     And otherwhere once more with spring's return;
     No creature the world over shall experience love--
     Drying its wings impatiently while clinging to the old 
           cocoon,
     Leaping the swollen waterfall, yapping to the desert moon,
     Looping the loop above some quaking bog,
     Pounding out drum music from some rotting log,
     But I shall be there in each sound and move--
     Now with the victor, now with the vanquished.
     A thousand thousand times I shall suffer pain,
     And that will be a mere beginning.
     A thousand thousand times I shall die,
     Yet never finally, never irrevocably,
     Always with enough left of life to start again: to be born,
     To grow, give battle, win, lose, laugh, cry, sing and mourn, 
           to love,
     Never quite losing the feeling of surprise
     That it is good to live and die;
     Learning to forget the word `finally,'
     Learning to unlearn the word `ultimately,'
     Learning, the long stretch of eternity having just begun.

       In recalling George Sutton's words, we celebrate the fact 
     that Mary Ellen will always be with us.
       When we face a challenge, she'll be there saying, ``Meet 
     it! Don't give up!''
       When we are tempted to compromise she will be there saying, 
     ``Keep those high standards!''
       When we are truly happy, we will remember her zest for 
     life.
       Mary Ellen, we will love you--always.

                          ____________________