[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 79 (Tuesday, June 21, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                     TRIBUTE TO GEORGE JOHN VAFINIS

  Mr. HEFLIN. Mr. President, I want to pay tribute to a man who touched 
many lives in my hometown. Our friend, restaurant owner George John 
Vafinis, who died May 26, will be greatly missed by the people of 
Tuscumbia and Sheffield, where George's Steak Pit thrived for nearly 40 
years.
  George was native of Glassaskopelos, Greece, and a veteran of World 
War II and the Greek Navy, but Tuscumbians accepted him as one of their 
own.
  George opened his first restaurant in 1956. This establishment 
quickly gained a reputation for its food, elegance, and charge. George 
always treated his employees and customers with professionalism, class, 
and respect. One employee described him as the best boss she ever had, 
and his customers thought just as highly of him. George had been 
retired from the restaurant business since 1983. He spent the last 
decade traveling often to his native Greece to visit friends and 
relatives.
  I extend my heartfelt sympathies to George's wife Evangeline, and 
their entire family in the wake of their tremendous loss. We are 
thankful George chose to make his home in Tuscumbia. Our town will not 
be the same without him.

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