[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 114 (Friday, July 14, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9972-S9974]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[[Page S9972]]
TRIBUTES TO SENATOR JOHN C. STENNIS AT HIS FUNERAL IN MISSISSIPPI
Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, a number of us on the floor of the Senate
paid tribute to our former colleague, John Stennis, shortly after his
death on April 23 of this year.
From the days when he was the youngest judge in Mississippi, through
his time as President pro tempore of this body, when he was third in
the line of Presidential succession, John Stennis was a man of
integrity, honor, judicious temperament, and great personal kindness.
A robber took the Phi Beta Kappa key he had worn since his graduation
from the University of Virginia Law School--and almost took his life--
but no one could ever take away the courage, kindness, and humility of
this giant who served in this body for more than 41 years. He married a
young home demonstration agent who had come to his county to help farm
families improve their lives, and together he and Miss Coy demonstrated
for 55 years what a happy, loving home could be. He loved his family,
his country, and his State, and his great affection for the people of
Mississippi was returned in equal measure.
A large delegation of both Democrats and Republicans, led by Senators
Cochran and Lott, journeyed to Senator Stennis' hometown, DeKalb, MS,
for his graveside service on April 26. The service beautifully
symbolized the life of John Stennis. It was simple, but powerful and
inspiring, reflecting the quiet dignity, wisdom and humility that
characterized the man.
Today I would like to enter into the Record the remarks made at
Senator Stennis' funeral on April 26, 1995, at Pine Crest Cemetery in
DeKalb, MS, by his son, John Hampton Stennis, and his minister, the
Reverend Jerry Allan McBride, as well as the tribute sent by President
Clinton, and a number of other tributes.
I ask unanimous consent that those tributes be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
A Service in Thanksgiving for the Life of the Honorable John Cornelius
Stennis, Pinecrest Cemetery, DeKalb, MS, April 26, 1995
remarks of john hampton stennis
My sister, Margaret Jane, and I as we grew up in Kemper
County during the mid-1940s were required to memorize
passages. My mother handled the Bible; by father taught us
patriotic sayings and poems.
First was the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America. Daddy taught from the small plaque
I now hold. We were in the midst of World War II. He
illustrated the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance by Judge
Learned Hands' address at ``I Am an American day,'' entitled
``The Spirit of Liberty'':
``The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure
that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which
seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the
spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests
longside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty
remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded;
the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two
thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never
learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a
kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by
side with the greatest.''
His patriotism did not consist of short and frenzied
outbursts of emotions, but in the tranquil and steady
dedication of a lifetime.
My father's oldest sister, Aunt Janie, had given him a copy
of One Hundred and One Famous Poems With a Prose Supplement.
We learned almost all these poems; I shall share a few lines
from some.
From ``Be Strong,'' Maltbie Davenport Babcock:
Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift;
Sun not the struggle-face it; 'tis God's gift.
* * * * *
Be strong!
It matters not how deep intrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long;
Faint not--fight on! To-morrow comes the song.
From ``A Psalm of Life,'' Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!--
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
* * * * *
Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate:
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
From an unknown poem about a young boy who watched his
father to go to the field behind a mule-drawn plow at sunrise
and return at dusk:
I believe my father had a pact with God
To guide his plow and keep his furrow straight.
Finally, from Micah 6:8 of the New English Bible:
God has told you what is good;
and what is it that the Lord asks of you?
Only to act justly, to love loyally,
to walk wisely before your God.
____
sermon by the reverend jerry allan mcbride
When all is said and done, the most important words that
will be said about John Cornelius Stennis will not be that he
was a great statesman and United States Senator. He was
certainly all of that; but he was so much more. In all of the
ways by which we measure value in our society and our world,
the person and spirit of this man transcended common worth.
For the measure of John Stennis is found in his character and
dignity. To his wife, he was a devoted husband and partner.
To his children and grandchildren he was a loving father and
grandfather and a wise teacher. To his friends he was a man
whose friendship could always be counted on. To his country
he was a leader who found his ``power'' only in the
commitment to service. And to his state he was a shining
example for the very best that is in all of us.
Above all, John Stennis was a man of faith. He spent his
life in ministry that was just as dedicated as if he had
donned the clerical robes of a minister in his beloved DeKalb
Presbyterian Church. John Stennis believed that success was
ultimately measured in terms of how faithful he was to the
trust that the people had placed in him. And by all accounts,
the trust of the people was never betrayed, and although he
rose to the highest levels of political power, he never
forgot who sent him, and what his mission was. I was so very
touched when
I walked into the Senator's home. It is a true monument to
the goodness of John Stennis and his family. The
simplicity of this great man's surroundings spoke of an
inner wisdom and a real sense of what is ultimately
important; and what is not. John Stennis never forgot
where he came from and subsequently he never forgot who he
was. The great prophet of social justice in the eighth
century B.C., Micah, ask the question, What is it that the
Lord asks of you?'' And the answer, ``to act justly, to
love loyally, and to walk wisely before our God,''
describes the life of this true servant of the people.
So we gather today for all of the reasons that people come
together at a time like this. We gather to celebrate the long
and meaningful life of John Stennis, and we gather to mourn.
Both are part of the cycle of creation. This great man meant
so much to so many, and even though I did not know him
personally, he knew me. And he knew all of the people who
farmed the land, and worked the hills, and built the towns
and cities of this our beloved state. John Stennis knew all
Mississippians, and all Americans, and for that matter all
people everywhere, and he left us such a legacy, and an
example of how to live life as a public servant and a citizen
of the world.
In the cynical, ego centric, and violent world which we
live, it is important that we follow the good example that
John Stennis has left us. He was so many things. He was ever
a gentleman who never forgot that integrity was the only way
to fully honor the trust of the people. He was a man of
civility who never forgot that there is a right and a wrong
way for men and women to disagree, and then come to a
solution that will benefit the common good. Above all, John
Cornelius Stennis was a man who, when he saw injustice would
have no part of it, and he called us all to a higher standard
of fairness and justice. He was a man who
believed that service meant giving to others rather than
gathering for himself.
In his campaign literature for the 1947 senatorial race,
John Stennis stated what would be the standard for his life
and his public service when he wrote.
``I want to go to Washington as the free and unfettered
servant of the great body of the people who actually carry
the burden of everyday life. I want to plow a straight furrow
right down to the end of my row. This is my political
religion and I have lived by it too long to abandon it now. I
base my appeal to you on this simple creed, and with it I
shall rise and fall.''
By all accounts, John Cornelius Stennis always remembered
the ``great body of the people who actually carry the burden
of everyday life.'' He remembered them because he was one of
them. And by all measures, it can be said that John Stennis
did in fact ``plow a straight furrow.'' And not only did he
plow it, but he watered, and tended, and harvested, and then
he plowed again, and harvested again. John Stennis plowed the
straight furrow and we are better because of who he was and
what he did for everyone of us. We will miss John Stennis but
because of the fruits of his life, which were justice,
compassion, and integrity, we will never forget the furrow he
plowed.
[[Page S9973]]
The liturgy, for Burial, is characterized by joy, in the
certainty that ``neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord''.
This joy, however, does not make human grief unchristian.
The very love we have for each other in Christ brings deep
sorrow when we are parted by death. Jesus himself wept at the
grave of his friend. so, while we rejoice that one we love
has entered into the nearer presence of our Lord, we sorrow
in sympathy with those whom mourn.
May the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace.
____
April 25, 1995.
To the Family and Friends of Senator John C. Stennis:
Hillary and I were deeply saddened by Senator Stennis'
death, and we extend our heartfelt sympathy.
During more than four decades in the United States Senate,
Senator Stennis proved himself to be a wise leader and a
devoted patriot, consistently earning the respect of his
colleagues and the support of the people of Mississippi. A
grateful nation will honor his memory next December with the
commissioning of the John C. Stennis, the next Nimitz class
aircraft carrier. His positive influence on our nation's
defense policies, his insistence on ethics among public
officials, and his many personal examples of bravery remain
an inspiration for all Americans.
John, Margaret, and the rest of you are in our thoughts and
prayers.
William J. Clinton.
____
[From the Los Angeles Times, Apr. 24, 1995]
John C. Stennis; Longtime Senator
(From a Times Staff Writer)
Former Sen. John C. Stennis (D-Miss.), a deeply religious
defense hawk who served four decades in the Senate and
exercised a major influence on U.S. military policy, died of
pneumonia Sunday afternoon at St. Dominic Hospital in
Jackson, Miss. He was 93.
Nicknamed the ``Conscience of the Senate'' for his personal
rectitude and his efforts to shape the upper house's code of
ethics, Stennis retired in 1988. He had undergone
cardiovascular surgery in 1983 and a year later had his left
leg amputated because of a malignant tumor in his upper
thigh.
As chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee
for 12 years, beginning in 1969, Stennis played a key role in
fighting off deep cuts in the defense budget. He opposed
judicial efforts to desegregate public schools in 1964, but
three decades later he supported extending the Voting Rights
Act.
Close to eight presidents, Stennis was the last of the
classic Southern gentlemen who so forcefully shaped the
character of the mid-century Senate. He was crusty yet
courtly, a stern moralist with an almost mystical devotion to
the Senate.
``He was a great senator in every way,'' Sen. Thad Cochran
(R-Miss.) said Sunday. ``He was effective, respected and
deeply appreciated by the people in Mississippi. He was truly
a man of great stature.''
Stennis himself was more modest about his place in history.
``How would I like to be remembered?'' he mused in a 1985
interview. ``I haven't thought about that a whole lot. You
couldn't give me a finer compliment than just to say, `He did
his best.'''
Despite his genteel manners, Stennis could be tough. Early
in 1973, when the senator was 71, he was held up by two young
hoodlums in front of his home in northwest Washington. They
robbed him and then shot him twice. One bullet pierced his
stomach, pancreas and colon.
Surgeons at the Army's Walter Reed Hospital at first
doubted he would survive. But then-President Richard Nixon,
emerging from Stennis' hospital room, predicted that the
senator would make it because ``he's got the will to live in
spades.'' Within eight months, Stennis was back on the Senate
floor.
Stennis attributed his remarkable recovery to prayer and to
his excellent physical condition, achieved from years of
exercising in the Senate gym.
``I just prayed that I could be useful again,'' he said,
reflecting on his ordeal. ``That's what the consuming thought
was, the consuming question--could I survive and be useful I
decided that I could.''
Stennis displayed a different kind of toughness in 1954
when he served on the select committee that probed charges
against the late Sen. Joseph R. McCarty (R-Wis.) and became
the first Senate Democrat to call for censure of the free-
swinging Wisconsin lawmaker. Although Stennis was a dedicated
conservative and an outspoken foe of communism, he was
offended by McCarthy's tactics.
During the censure debate, Stennis rallied support from
many colleagues who had been afraid to attack McCarthy. In a
vigorous speech, he accused McCarthy of besmirching the
Senate's good name with ``slush and slime.''
That same year Stennis was one of the first members of
Congress to caution against U.S. involvement in Indochina.
In a Senate speech delivered when the Eisenhower
Administration was considering intervention to prevent a
French disaster in Vietnam, Stennis presciently warned that
committing U.S. ground forces could lead to ``a long, costly
and indecisive war.''
Yet 11 years later, when President Lyndon B. Johnson made a
large scale commitment to fight in Vietnam. Stennis loyally
backed his commander in chief. ``Once the die is cast and
once our flag is committed and our boys are sent out to the
field, you will find solid support for the war from the
South,'' he said.
He also firmly backed defense spending throughout his
career, supporting the Pentagon even when the Vietnam War
made weapons procurement unpopular. ``If there is one thing
I'm unyielding and unbending on, it is that we must have the
very best weapons.'' he once said.
As the Vietnam War wound down, however, Stennis co-
sponsored the War Powers Act of 1973, which limits the
President's power to send troops into combat without
congressional consent.
Senate liberals clashed frequently with Stennis on subjects
ranging from defense spending to civil rights, but they
invariably praised him for his fairness and courtesy.
And those were the qualities he praised.
From the time he entered politics in 1928 as a member of
the Mississippi Legislature, he tried to base his life on
this motto: ``I will plow a straight furrow right down to the
end of my row.''
That slogan reflected his rural background. John Cornelius
Stennis was born Aug. 9, 1901, in DeKalb, Miss., and grew up
on a cotton and cattle farm in what he described as the
``poor end of the poor end'' of his state. He graduated from
Mississippi State University and the University of Virginia
Law School, and served as a district attorney and circuit
judge before entering politics.
His Scots Presbyterian parents taught him to appreciate the
value of a dollar. ``I was raised to believe waste was a
sin,'' he once said. Stennis practiced that belief with a
vengeance: He carefully saved all the string from packages
that arrived at his home.
As a courtly Southern gentleman, Stennis was known to
interrupt a Senate committee hearing to find a seat for a
woman spectator. But he had little tolerance for miniskirts
and other modern feminine trends.
When a female Senate aide once sat on a sofa wearing a
skirt that exposed a good deal of her thigh, Stennis averted
his eyes and grumbled to a colleague: ``I'm going to get a
bolt of cloth so that lady can finish her dress.''
After his retirement, Stennis served as executive-in-
residence at the Mississippi State University campus in
Starkville. The university houses the John C. Stennis
Institute of Government and the Stennis Center for Public
Service, created by Congress.
``I do believe the most important thing I can do now is to
help young people understand the past and prepare for the
future,'' Stennis said in 1990. ``As long as I have energy
left, I want to use it to the benefit of students.''
Stennis is survived by two children. His wife, Coy Hines
Stennis, whom he always called ``Miss Coy,'' died in 1989.
______
Ability to Adapt Helped Stennis Endure and Mississippi Advance
(By Butch John and Jay Hughes)
U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis was remembered Sunday as a man
willing and able to adapt to sweeping change in Mississippi
without surrendering his dignity or his devotion to its
people.
A staunch segregationist during his early years in the U.S.
Senate, he became an enthusiastic proponent of equality for
all Mississippians in his later years, former state
Democratic Party Chairman Ed Cole said.
``He had a deep and abiding respect for people, even when
they disagreed with him. He had a deep and abiding faith in
the good of people, all people,'' said Cole, the first black
political professional employed by Stennis.
Hired in 1981 to work in Stennis' Jackson Congressional
Office, Cole said Stennis, 93, who died Sunday of pneumonia,
never forgot the people who helped his four-decade career in
the U.S. Senate.
And his state won't forget him, said Gov. Kirk Fordice, who
ordered flags at state offices lowered to half-staff in
mourning for Stennis.
``All of Mississippi mourns for John C. Stennis, one of the
outstanding Americans ever to serve in the United States
Senate,'' Fordice said. ``His service to this state was long
and faithful.''
Fordice, a Republican said he once served on Stennis' local
reelection committee in Vicksburg at the senator's request,
``probably as a note of bipartisanship.''
``He was that kind of guy,'' Fordice said. ``In the olden
days I think there was a lot less partisanship.''
Stennis never fell prey to many politician's flaw of
forgetting the people who put him in office, Cole said.
``I was constantly amazed how he remembered the small
things people did for him--seven, eight, nine races before,''
Cole said. ``He would often have you drive up a back road to
see some farmer who nobody knew about, and nobody knew Sen.
Stennis knew anything about. He never forgot them.''
Others who knew him said he never lost his down-home touch
despite a rocketlike rise to some of the most powerful
positions in the Senate.
``We used to travel some together, go around in the
district and to other places. He always would tell me, `Let's
get some ice cream; that's my weakness.' Wherever we were,
we'd go get it. That was just the way he was,'' said 3rd
District U.S. Rep. Sonny Montgomery, who served with Stennis
for 23 years.
[[Page S9974]]
``He was one of the stalwarts for the state of
Mississippi,'' said state Sen. David Jordan of Greenwood, who
as an early civil rights supporter found himself on the other
side of Stennis' pro-segregation stand.
``I would have liked to have seen him more open to all of
the state. We didn't always have the access to him that some
of the white folks had. But over the years he changed. He
became a statesman for all of the people.''
Former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Gandy said Stennis remained in close
contact with state officials throughout his stay in
Washington. When there was a problem, she said, Stennis would
make a point to fix it.
``His heart was with the people of Mississippi, and he
responded to their needs, and he helped those of us who were
elected at the state level to respond to those needs,'' she
said.
Rex Buffington, Stennis' press secretary from 1978 until
the senator retired in 1988, said the key to Stennis' power
sprang from his reputation.
``A lot of that came from being committed to doing the
right thing. A lot of his power and influence came, not just
from the positions that he held, but from the esteam that
people held him in,'' Buffington said.
Buffington said he admired Stennis long before going to
work for him, and when he took the job he was concerned that
in Washington he would find a man much different from his
public reputation.
``What I found when I got there was just the opposite. He
was an individual who was even greater than that wonderful
image,'' he said. ``It was incredible, really, working for a
legend, and one who lived up to and even exceeded his
reputation.''
Almost immediately after leaving office, Stennis' health
began to seriously fail and he was forced to drop out of all
public life, Buffington said.
``The senator that we knew has really been gone for a
while,'' he said. ``It was as though when he left the Senate
he finally let go.''
Buffington now serves as executive director of the Stennis
Center for Public Service at Mississippi State University. It
was created by Congress in 1988 to attract young people to
public service careers.
Former Gov. William Winter campaigned for Stennis when
Stennis first ran for the Senate in 1947. He later served as
his legislative assistant.
``He represented, to me, what a public leader ought to be
like,'' Winter said. ``His total commitment to public
service, his integrity, his impeccable personal character and
his qualities as a true gentleman.''
``During his service in the United States Senate,
Mississippi had one of the most effective and highly
respected senators that this or any other state ever had,''
Winter said. ``We shall not soon see his like again.''
Others echo Winter's assessment.
``He truly was a man of great stature. He will long be
remembered as one of the finest senators Mississippi ever
produced,'' said U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, a former colleague.
``He never said anything bad about anybody else and looked
for the good in others. He was appreciated for that. People
noticed that.''
Former Gov. Ray Mabus, currently ambassador to Saudi
Arabia, called Stennis ``a statesman for the ages.''
Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, John C. Stennis devoted his long life to
public service. He encouraged, taught, and inspired many Senators and
Senate staffer members, and was the model for many young people who
have entered public service, not only in Mississippi but throughout
this country. The John C. Stennis Center for Public Service at
Mississippi State University continues that work with programs for
young people and for current public servants at the local, State, and
Federal level. Starting with the 103d Congress, the center began
conducting leadership workshops for senior congressional staff members.
Senator Stennis' strong commitment to honorable public service will
live on through the work of the Stennis Center, and through the
countless lives he influenced.
I thank the Chair.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________