[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 17 (Friday, January 27, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1701-S1702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           LORNA KOOI SIMPSON

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, somebody once asked Ralph Waldo Emerson the 
secret to success. And after a brief pause, Emerson replied, ``Make 
yourself necessary to somebody.''
  I know that I speak for all of our colleagues in expressing to our 
friend and colleague, Senator Alan Simpson, from Wyoming, our most 
sincere sympathies on the death, on January 24, of his mother, Lorna 
Kooi Simpson. As we all know, Mr. President, God only gives us one 
mother.
  Plutarch tells us that Alexander the Great made his mother many 
magnificent presents, and Antipater once wrote a letter to Alexander, a 
long letter full of heavy complaints against her. And when he had read 
it, Alexander said, ``Antipater knows not that one tear of a mother can 
blot out 1,000 such complaints.''
  A little less than two years ago, Senator Simpson lost his father, 
former United States Senator Milward L. Simpson. The loss of loved ones 
is always a blow to us, but to lose one's parents over such a brief 
span of time is doubly hard, and I want Senator Simpson and his family 
to know that we understand something of their grief in these days.
  But a degree of the sense of loss at the death of Mrs. Simpson is 
assuaged upon contemplating the life and accomplishments of this great 
lady.
  Throughout her life, Lorna Simpson was dedicated to ``making herself 
necessary'' to others, in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson--to hundreds 
and hundreds of other people--in practically everything that she did.
  An accomplished musician at both the piano and the Hammond organ, and 
a masterful vocalist, through her music, Lorna Simpson enriched the 
lives of those around her. She played the organ and directed the choir 
at her church in Cody, Wyoming. Indeed, early in her marriage, her 
sister prevailed on Mrs. Simpson to enter a contest to compose an 
original ``pep song'' for the University of Wyoming. Reluctantly, Mrs. 
Simpson went to work, and succeeded in winning the contest with her 
original ``Come on, Wyoming!''
  Additionally, however, Mrs. Simpson was also a talented amateur 
sculptor and artist, and played an active role in promoting the arts 
throughout her entire life.
  But that was not the limit of her contributions.
  In 1940, Mrs. Simpson was appointed by the Mayor of Cody, Wyoming, to 
the Cody Planning and Zoning Commission. With other citizens, Mrs. 
Simpson engaged in a long and successful campaign, complete with a bond 
issue that passed in 1950, that rendered Cody ``one of the most 
beautiful cities in Wyoming.''
  Moreover, Mrs. Simpson and her husband were co-owners of the local 
radio station KODI in Cody, at which Mrs. Simpson often did both 
programming and on-the-air work. During World War II, Mrs. Simpson was 
the acting editor of the Cody Enterprise newspaper.
  And in her ``spare time,'' as a co-owner with her husband of the Cody 
Inn, Mrs. Simpson oversaw the restoration of this hostelry to its 
original grandeur.
  In fact, time here does not permit a full recounting of the full 
record of Mrs. Simpson contributions to the career of her husband and 
to her family, as well as to the people of Wyoming and the United 
States. Suffice it to add that she served as the First Lady of Wyoming 
during her husband's tenure 
[[Page S1702]] as Governor
 from 1954 through 1958, and accompanied him to Washington during his 
service as a United States Senator from 1962 through 1966 after he won 
an election to complete the unexpired term of the late Senator Keith 
Thomson, during which the elder Senator Simpson was diagnosed with 
Parkinson's disease, forcing his retirement from the Senate.

  On once being nominated ``Wyoming Woman of the Year,'' Mrs. Simpson 
said, ``The Bible does say, `Let your light so shine before men that 
may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.'''
  Certainly, Lorna Kooi Simpson carried with her throughout her life a 
brilliant, far-reaching light. She was a genuine ``Renaissance Lady.'' 
To reflect on her life is to marvel at the capacity of some men and 
women to live selflessly and abundantly beyond the imaginations of most 
of us, and we are all diminished by the death of this great Wyoming 
lady, as we are diminished by the death of any great person.
  I trust that Senator Simpson, whom we admire, and for whom we have 
great affection, will find a rich and undiminishing solace in the 
memories of Mrs. Simpson, and in the assurance of the love of God that 
so infused and defined her life. To be sure, Lorna Kooi Simpson was, 
and is, a genuine reflection of the workmanship of a Loving Heavenly 
Father, and she is now at rest in an Eternal Home, not made with hands, 
in our Father's house, near at hand to the Lord whom she so dearly 
served throughout her life with every talent with which He had 
entrusted her.
  My wife, Erma, and I extend our sympathy and our condolences to Alan 
Simpson and all of his family in this hour of trial.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  

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