[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 96 (Wednesday, July 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7127-S7128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING JIMMY STEWART

 Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the memory 
of one of the most beloved sons of Pennsylvania, Mr. Jimmy Stewart. A 
native of Indiana County, Mr. Stewart honored all of us by identifying 
himself, in the fullest sense, as one of us.
  Throughout his career, he was hailed as the Everyman, the 
quintessential American male, an example of ``inspired averageness,'' 
as one writer put it. And that was his special gift--doing the 
extraordinary in a way that didn't call attention to itself. But what 
he did with his life, what he accomplished, did, in the end, call 
attention to itself, because Jimmy Stewart was not ordinary.
  In ``Liberty Valance,'' one of Mr. Stewart's movies in which he plays 
a Senator returning to town for a rancher's funeral, a newsman says to 
him: ``This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the 
legend.'' I would like to recall today, Mr. President, how the fact of 
Jimmy Stewart became the legend. Because with Mr. Stewart, the fact and 
the legend are one.
  Jimmy Stewart was born in Indiana, PA in 1908. His father owned the 
local hardware store and he always retained ties to his hometown and 
the traditions that it embodied for him. As he himself said, ``This is 
where I made up my mind about certain things--about the importance of 
hard work and community spirit, the value of family, church and God.''
  He graduated with honors from Princeton University in 1932 with a 
degree in architecture and even did well enough to earn a scholarship 
to pursue graduate studies in that field. But it was acting he chose to 
pursue and he would eventually appear in 71 films, among them some of 
the best ever produced, such as ``The Philadelphia Story,'' ``Mr. Smith 
Goes to Washington,'' ``It's a Wonderful Life,'' and ``Rear Window.'' 
For someone with a reputation for uncomplicated wholesomeness, the 
successful portrayal of so many diverse characters in so many films 
suggests, as others have remarked, the possession of something more--
something deeper and more compelling than simple wholesomeness, 
although he had that too.
  This ``something more'' was seen most clearly, perhaps, in Mr. 
Stewart's exemplary service in World War II. When other stars were 
content to remain at home and fulfill their patriotic obligation in 
less hazardous ways, Jimmy Stewart willingly left a thriving and 
prosperous film career to enlist in the Army Air Corps. He enlisted as 
a private and by 1945 had attained the rank of colonel. He also 
aggressively campaigned for combat duty and would eventually fly 20 
dangerous missions over enemy territory as a command pilot. By war's 
end, he had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the French 
Croix-de-Guerre, and the Air Medal. He stayed active in the Air Force 
Reserve and retired a brigadier general, the highest rank ever attained 
by a professional entertainer.
  Just as he had the humility to leave a successful film career to be a 
soldier

[[Page S7128]]

like any other in that war, he also had the modesty to return to acting 
and wonder if he could reclaim a place in Hollywood. And he did, of 
course. ``It's a Wonderful Life'' was his first film after the war and 
it not only returned him to American movie audiences, it gave us and 
every future generation the wonderful character of George Bailey. 
George Bailey, who changed so many lives without even knowing it. And, 
of course for many of us, Jimmy Stewart was George Bailey. Someone who 
succeeded in so many ways without ever appearing to fully realize how 
extraordinary those achievements were.
  Jimmy Stewart continued to distinguish himself as a citizen, as an 
actor, and a devoted husband and father for the rest of his life. Once 
he retired from the movies, he remained active in charitable and 
community work, wrote poetry and became an ardent champion of film 
preservation, often coming to Washington to testify before Congress on 
the subject of colorizing old black and white films--a practice he 
opposed.
  With his death, he leaves two twin daughters and a son. He also 
leaves millions of devoted fans who admired him as much for his work as 
for the exemplary character and intelligence he projected throughout 
his lifetime.
  Jimmy Stewart once said that he agreed to do ``It's a Wonderful 
Life'' because of one line in it: ``Nobody is born to be a failure.'' 
He believed that ordinary Americans, in their everyday life, could, and 
did, do extraordinary things. Jimmy Stewart may have behaved as if he 
were just like everyone else. And he may have even believed it himself. 
But he really wasn't. He wasn't average at all. It was simply a final 
act of skill and generosity that he let us believe he was.

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