[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 68 (Wednesday, May 21, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4920-S4921]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO BARBARA ANDREWS-MEE

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we are fortunate when our working 
associates are knowledgeable, efficient, responsible and willing to go 
the extra mile.
  But none of those attributes mean much over the long haul until you 
add loyalty to the mix.
  For half of my life--and two-thirds of hers--Barbara Andrews-Mee has 
been my boss--as a lawyer, a member of our state legislature and as a 
U.S. Senator.
  Her talents are many. But, when I've been asked, ``What is Barb's 
best characteristic?'' I say, ``loyalty.''
  That means more to me than any of the help she's given me and the 
people of Alaska over more than three decades: work above and beyond 
the call of duty.
  Through our 36 years of working together, Barb has solved problems 
for countless Alaskans.
  She's been to hundreds--maybe even thousands--of meetings of civic 
and community groups to keep her finger on the pulse, to help keep me 
informed.
  A tireless supporter of our military men and women, she has attended 
ceremonies on bases and posts, on submarines and on her own ship, the 
U.S.S. Zephyr, a PC8 coastal patrol craft, which she christened.
  Barb has watched parades and air shows and presentations of colors 
and speeches of all types, and worked to ensure that military people 
who serve in Alaska are treated with respect as our neighbors and 
constituents.
  Barb, can on request, put a file in my hand that is sometimes decades 
old. She can always locate them.
  She's been the institutional memory for the young Alaskans who come 
to work with us, fresh out of school.
  And, after they've served on the Senate payroll and move on, they 
come back to see Barb.
  My grandmother always told me, ``Just remember, dynamite comes in 
small packages.''
  That's Barb.
  She knows when to use her Norwegian stubbornness or her Alaskan 
toughness to get a job done.
  She also knows how to set me straight, and has done it many times.
  Many a morning Barb has risen long before dawn, or many a dark night, 
well after others in Anchorage have gone to bed, she has traveled to 
Elmendorf Air Force Base to greet, in my name, dignitaries whose planes 
are making a brief stopover.
  She gives our visitors an Alaskan gift package--some smoked salmon, 
crackers, and candy. And every time afterward, the visitors say, 
``Remember me to Barb.''
  She's met my planes every hour of the day and night when I come home.
  And she's made sure I made my flights back to Washington, DC, no 
matter how tight the time frame, possibly testing the speed limits 
along the way, but always getting me there.
  One year I came home 36 times. She met me every time but one. When I 
got there that night, having left the Senate at 4 p.m., battled traffic 
and got the 5:30 plane and arrived in Anchorage about 11:30 p.m., there 
was no one there.

  I waited, then called Barb. ``What's up?'' I said to my sleepy 
friend. ``What's my schedule?''
  ``You aren't here, chief,'' Barb said. ``I won't tell anyone you're 
here if you won't tell anyone I'm not there!"
  I went fishing and then went back to DC.
  We've shared much more than a working relationship through the years, 
Mr. President. Barb's friendship has meant much to me and my family.
  In our worst days, when I lost my wife Ann who was Barb's good 
friend, Barb did everything possible to ease our pain, despite her own 
sense of loss.
  Barb's quick with the quip, and usually has a great joke to share 
when it looks like our spirits are low.
  Along with her job, and her sons, her daughter-in-law, and 
grandchildren, and her husband, Vince, Barb has another special love.
  It's golf.
  The snow has hardly disappeared from our Alaska golf courses before 
Barb is on the links.
  With Vince, she packs up her clubs and heads for sunny climes 
whenever there's an opportunity.

[[Page S4921]]

  Like everything else she's worked on, Barb continues to perfect her 
golf game.
  We may not see her on the L.P.G.A. circuit, but she's going to give 
those other lady golfers a run for their money.
  Mr. President, it's impossible to sum up 36 years of association in 
one small tribute.
  Mike Doogan, a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, in a farewell 
column about Barb's years with us, quoted her as saying, ``It's been a 
great ride.''
  You bet it has.
  But more than all of her other great attributes, Barb's loyalty has 
sustained me, comforted me, inspired me, and helped me to overcome 
tough situations.
  She may not be coming into my Anchorage office every day, anymore. 
She may be soaking up sunshine at her Arizona getaway, or on a Hawaiian 
Island or a Florida Key.
  But no matter where Barb is, she knows she can count on me to be her 
friend for all time.
  There is no way to thank Barb, Mr. President. The words ``Thank you'' 
are too small to convey the depth and breadth and length of the 
gratitude I have for all of the wonderful years Barb Andrews-Mee has 
shared with me, with my family, and with Alaskans.
  We'll miss our day-to-day contact, but we'll always know we have a 
loyal friend.
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  I ask to have printed in the Record Mike Doogan's Anchorage Daily 
News column of Sunday, May 18.
  The column follows:

             [From the Anchorage Daily News, May 18, 1997]

      Andrews-Mee Leaves'em Laughing, and Grateful After 35 Years

                            (By Mike Doogan)

       You have to say this for Barbara Andrews--Mee: She's no 
     quitter. She's worked for the same fellow for 35 years.
       ``I have been with Ted Stevens longer than I have been with 
     three husbands,'' she said last week with a characteristic 
     laugh. ``It's been a great ride.''
       The ride end this month, when Andrews-Mee retires as 
     manager of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens' Anchorage office.
       Resplendent in a red plaid blazer, Andrews-Mee sat in 
     Stevens' big office in the federal building and talked about 
     her time with Alaska's senator-for-life. Her own office, next 
     door, was stacked with files she's trying to clean out. Her 
     desk, which once belonged to Stevens' predecessor, Bob 
     Bartlett, was a jumble of notes and letters. Propped atop a 
     filing cabinet was a big, black-and-white photo of a younger 
     Stevens, looking like his dog had just died, with a hand-
     lettered caption that read: Whoever said it would be easy?
       Maybe it hasn't all been easy, but for Andrews-Mee it seems 
     to have been fun. The woman is a pistol. Here's just a 
     sample:
       On her height (she's 5 feet tall): ``I tell people used to 
     be 6-foot-2, and then I went to work for Stevens.''
       On her age (she's 59): ``Jeez, that's hell, when you to 
     have to admit your kid's going to turn 40.''
       On why she never ran for office herself: ``Oh, no, my skin 
     is too think. Like the fellow who goes to a football game and 
     when they go into a huddle, he thinks they're talking about 
     him?''
       On the fancy new computer she has at home: ``We've got the 
     whole thing. Don't get off at Chicago if you're going to New 
     York.''
       On her plans for retirement: ``My god, I am my mother. You 
     know how you just become your parents? My mother was a holy 
     terror 89 when she died and still dying her hair red. I'm not 
     going to sit home and watch soaps.''
       Instead, she said, she's going to play golf--she's still 
     trying to break 100--serve on the Defense Advisory Commission 
     on Women in the Services, and do volunteer work.
       ``It's payback time,'' she said, ``my country and my state 
     and my community.''
       Andrews-Mee went to work for Stevens when he was just 
     another lawyer with political ambitions. He was first elected 
     to the state Legislature in 1962, before there was the oil 
     money to pay legislative staff.
       ``In those days, Ted would find somebody going to Anchorage 
     and give them three, four Dictaphone belts, and I'd type them 
     up and send them back,'' she said. ``And that's how we did 
     legislative mail.''
       Stevens' political success since then owes a lot to 
     Andrews-Mee. His office has a long-standing reputation for 
     solving constituents' problems, whether or not the 
     constituent is a Stevens supporter.
       ``When somebody tells me, `I voted for Ted,' I say, ``That 
     great, but we represent everybody,'' she said.
       That attitude is a big part of the reason so many Democrats 
     enter the voting booth every six years and quietly cast a 
     ballot for the Republican. One way or another, Andrews-Mee 
     has made her boss a lot of friends.
       So it seems appropriate, out of respect for the job she's 
     done, to let Andrews-Mee say she's been happy to do that for 
     Stevens, to let her sneak in one last plug for her boss.
       ``He's done a great job.'' she said. ``Why else would I 
     stay with somebody for 35 years.''

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