[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 16 (Monday, February 10, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E195]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO REV. RONALD PACKNETT

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                        HON. WILLIAM (BILL) CLAY

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 10, 1997

  Mr. CLAY. Mr. Speaker, I stand today to pay tribute to my constituent 
and friend, Reverend Ronald Packnett, who died on December 17, 1996.
  Rev. Packnett was an extraordinary community leader. He was a vital 
pillar of the St. Louis community. He pastored a prominent spiritual 
institution, Central Baptist Church in St. Louis, that has a 
progressive and active congregation. Under Rev. Packnett's leadership 
they become important activists in causes that affected the broader 
community.
  I want to share with our colleagues an editorial that tells of the 
many lives Rev. Ronald Packnett touched both as a spiritual leader and 
friend of the community. This enlightening story entitled, ``Packnett 
Touched Many Lives, Stood Up For Important Causes'' was written by 
Gregory Freeman and appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on December 
20, 1996.

         [From the St. Louis (MO) Post Dispatch, Dec. 20, 1996]

       Packnett Touched Many Lives, Stood Up For Important Causes

                          (By Gregory Freeman)

       There's A void today at Del Monico's Diner. The Rev. Ronald 
     Packnett, pastor of Central Baptist Church, was a fixture at 
     the restaurant. He could be found at the restaurant at Delmar 
     Boulevard and Euclid Avenue almost every morning, chowing 
     down on one of their hearty pancakes-and-sausage breakfasts. 
     And he had a passion for Del Monico's fried chicken legs.
       Packnett, who died Tuesday at 45 after a long illness, 
     called restaurant matriarch Eva Bodo his mother away from 
     home. His mother lives in Chicago.
       The Rev. Gary Tyler was busy working at Del Monico's on 
     Tuesday when he learned of Packnett's death. He said Packnett 
     was his mentor. ``I was an associate pastor at Greater 
     Paradise.'' Tyler said, ``Rev. Packnett heard me preach and 
     invited me to his church to speak. Before I knew it, I was 
     speaking there all the time.''
       Packnett got Tyler, 31, the training he needed, and 
     installed him at Central Baptist.
       Other employees and customers overheard our conversation 
     and joined in. ``Rev. Packnett? He married me,'' one man 
     called out.
       ``He baptized me,'' yelled another.
       Bobo couldn't say enough about him.``He helped my 
     granddaughter,'' she said. ``He carried her to church every 
     Sunday, and he had her involved in everything.''
       Packnett loved young people. ``He'd always make sure the 
     youth could take part in the National Baptist Convention 
     every year,'' Tyler said.
       ``That's right,'' added Bobo, ``my granddaughter got to go 
     places she never could have gone.''
       ``San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, wherever the 
     convention was held, he always made sure that young people 
     could go,'' Tyler said. ``And then he made sure that they 
     weren't just running around when they got to those cities. 
     They always had some kind of class; and they went to places 
     like churches and historical sites.''
       Some spoke of programs he had set up through the church, 
     including one that provided clothes and lunch for the 
     homeless every Tuesday, and a ``Rites of Passage'' African 
     heritage program. Others talked about the hours he spent 
     visiting sick church members at hospitals and in their homes.
       In there's one thing a journalist learns early, it's that 
     there are phonies and there are real articles.
       Packnett was the real article.
       While he often rubbed shoulders with mayors and congressmen 
     and powerful people, he was clearly as much at ease with 
     average people and willing to help anyone. Like the day 
     the restaurant was shorthanded. Packnett took off his 
     coat, went to the kitchen and cheerfully pitched in to 
     wash dishes.
       At 5 feet, 6 inches, Packnett wasn't tall in stature. But 
     he was tall in the minds of those whose lives he touched. And 
     he wasn't afraid to speak out, even when he knew he'd be 
     sharply criticized.
       Packnett took a great deal of heat last year from some 
     blacks when he endorsed Francis Slay, who is white for 
     president of the city's Board of Aldermen over his black 
     opponent, Alderman Velma Jean Bailey. The criticism didn't 
     bother him. ``What's right is right,'' he said then.
       Others didn't care for him four years ago when he made a 
     stink after taking his two children to Union Station to see 
     Santa and discovering that they had no black Santas. He 
     called the company that supplies Santa to malls nationwide 
     and learned the company had supplied no black Santas here.
       He faxed letters to marketing directors at seven malls and 
     a department store on behalf of the St. Louis Clergy 
     Coalition, a group of black ministers that represents various 
     denominations. The letter said, in effect, we spend money in 
     your stores and we want a black Santa. Two of the malls told 
     him they would hire a black Santa right away.
       Last year, a day before the Million Man March, Packnett led 
     more than 100 people in prayer at Central Baptist Church 
     before they headed off to the event in Washington. After 
     praying, he led the audience in song, delighting the crowd 
     when he changed the words to a spiritual from ``Ain't gonna 
     let nobody turn me 'round'' to ``Ain't gonna let Newt 
     Gingrich turn us 'round''.
       The members of his church remember him best for his work at 
     Central Baptist. ``He was always helping people, doing for 
     people, teaching people right from wrong,'' Bobo said.
       ``We'll not get any more pastors like that,'' Bobo said 
     adding, ``If they do, it'll probably be long after I'm not 
     around anymore.''

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