[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.

                          ____________________