[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 73 (Thursday, May 4, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6143-S6144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  IN MEMORY OF SENATOR JOHN C. STENNIS

  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, MS. 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 Stennises 
[[Page S6144]] buried there were known as professional people--doctors, 
lawyers, teacher, 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 has 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.


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