[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 60 (Friday, May 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4279-S4280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHARINE HEPBURN

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I thank my friend and colleague from 
Ohio, who has quite graciously allowed me to go forward for a few 
moments to join my colleague from Connecticut in kind of a statement of 
pride and gratitude, to commemorate and recognize the birthday this 
Monday of a beloved constituent but really one of the great motion 
picture actresses of all time, Katharine Hepburn.
  As Senator Dodd said, we have known Katharine Hepburn in Connecticut 
not only as one of our own, but as somebody who, quite appropriately, 
has preserved her privacy. We try our best to do that, and I suppose it 
is inconsistent to publicly acknowledge that this great lady is 
approaching her 90th birthday, on May 12. But in this case, we 
respectfully and humbly break the privacy and want to publicly honor 
her for the extraordinary career that she has had.
  She grew up in a small Connecticut town and has always consider 
herself--and still does--the ``local girl,'' as she puts it. She is the 
only four-time winner of the Academy Award for best actress, as I say, 
for the great roles she has played, 3 of which were won after the age 
of 60. Katharine Hepburn is, in the words of my colleague--and it is 
interesting that we both chose the same phrase, working independently--
a national treasure.
  For nearly 70 years of a brilliant acting career, she has captured 
the essence of not just what it means to be a great woman and a great 
person, but the American spirit both on and off the silver screen. In 
her leading roles and in her life, Katharine Hepburn has stood as a 
symbol of dignity and of independence, someone who, in the best 
American/New England traditions, has proudly lived life on her own 
terms, and with it, great results came.

  Katharine Hepburn once said of her home in Connecticut, ``I think I'm 
lucky because people with careers are

[[Page S4280]]

attracted to the big city and lose track of where they come from. 
This''--speaking of our State and her beloved town--``is where I come 
from. I have roots, a sense of belonging somewhere.''
  As much as we are honored that Katharine Hepburn has said she belongs 
in Connecticut, we are very proud to say that we belong to her and she 
to us. People around the Old Saybrook section of the State will tell 
you how thrilled they are to have seen her taking those dips into Long 
Island Sound, not only in the summer but occasionally in winter, and 
how grateful they are for the way in which, in her quiet way, she has 
become involved in the kinds of concerns that local communities have, 
such as buying a ladder truck for the fire department. She reaches an 
extraordinary age this Monday and can look back on a remarkable career.
  Katharine Hepburn's artistic brilliance, her outlook on life, her 
spirit, have served as a beacon of light and of truth for people in 
America and, really, throughout the world. I am delighted to join with 
my colleague, and I am sure everyone else in our State and everyone 
here in the Senate, in thanking her for what she has meant to us as an 
artist, in expanding our own sense of reality, our own horizons, our 
own appreciation of life. She reaches a substantial age on Monday, but 
the truth is that Katharine Hepburn, through the miracle of the movies, 
is ageless and immortal, forever beautiful, forever graceful, forever 
magnificently intelligent, forever brilliant, forever spirited, forever 
Katharine Hepburn. Happy 90th birthday.
  I thank the Chair and yield the floor.

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