[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 17 (Tuesday, February 11, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H413-H414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO HERB CAEN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California [Ms. Pelosi] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, they say that a picture is worth a thousand 
words, and in this visual era that we live in that has never been 
truer. But words have power, too, and a name, Herb Caen, to our 
community was worth 1,000 words every single day for nearly 60 years, 
mostly with the San Francisco Chronicle.
  Last week we suffered a great loss in our community with the passing 
of Herb Caen. It was a tremendous loss for the entire Bay area 
community. Indeed, Herb Caen gave us our sense of community with his 
sense of humor.
  But 1996 was a great year for Herb. It was the year he turned 80, it 
was the year he got married, it was the year he was awarded the 
Pulitzer prize, and it was the year that our community recognized him 
at Herb Caen Day. This special day was put on by Willie Brown, the 
mayor of San Francisco, and our Chief of Protocol, Charlotte Maillard, 
and over 75,000 people turned out to pay tribute to Herb Caen and to 
name an over-3-mile stretch of street in San Francisco Herb Caen Way.
  Seventy-five thousand people, joined Walter Cronkite and Joel Grey 
and

[[Page H414]]

other figures, celebrities, many in the sports arena, politics, the 
arts, show business in paying tribute to Herb. I do not know of any 
other person, living person, who has had such a tribute, who can make 
that claim.
  His funeral took place this past Friday, and thousands of people 
attended. In the evening there was a candlelight march after work for 
the many people who could not take time off during the day, along Herb 
Caen Way, to honor him. It is very hard to explain to our colleagues a 
person so special that tens of thousands of people would turn out for 
him in life and in death, but he lived as he had died, surrounded by 
friends.
  So I once again on the floor of this House want to extend my deepest 
sympathy to Herb's wife, Ann Caen; his son, Christopher; and Stacy, 
Steven and Catherine. It is a very difficult time for them and for all 
of San Francisco, the area which considered itself part of Herb's 
family.
  Our mayor, Willie Brown, said it best when he said Herb Caen is 
irreplaceable. Again, as I say, because he was so special, it may be 
hard for our colleagues to understand the esteem in which he was held. 
The mayor called him irreplaceable. I will borrow the words of W.H. 
Auden, with some poetic license, to try to give expression to the 
sadness of our community on the death of Herb Caen:

       Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, prevent the dog 
     from barking with the juicy bone, silence the pianos and with 
     muffled drum bring out Herb's friends, let the mourners come.
       Let airplanes circle moaning overhead, scribbling on the 
     sky the message he is gone. Put crepe bows around the white 
     necks of the public doves, let the traffic policemen wear 
     black cotton gloves.
       He was, in our community, he was our North, our South, our 
     East and our West, our working week and our Sunday rest. Our 
     moon, our midnight, our talk, our song; we thought that he 
     would last forever, but we were wrong.
       The stars are not wanted now; put out every one: Pack up 
     the moon and dismantle the sun; pour away the ocean and sweep 
     up the woods: for nothing can ever come to any good.

  I do not agree with that last line. Herb would certainly want his 
leaving to come to some good.
  On his Herb Caen Day he said when he died and, hopefully, went to 
heaven, when he got there he would say of heaven ``It ain't bad but it 
ain't San Francisco.''
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Saxton] is recognized for 5 minutes.

  [Mr. SAXTON addressed the House. His remarks will appear hereafter in 
the Extensions of Remarks.]

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