[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 144 (Thursday, October 23, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2056-E2057]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING THE PASADENA CITIZEN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. KEN BENTSEN

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 22, 1997

  Mr. BENTSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to congratulate the Pasadena Citizen 
newspaper which this week celebrates 50 years of journalistic 
excellence and service to the community. The Pasadena Citizen's 
dedication to covering vital but often overlooked local news has made a 
significant contribution to our community.
  Begun as a weekly dedicated to local news by Houston journalists John 
Murphy, Tom Maes, and Howard Greenwood, and backed by famed oil 
wildcatter Glenn H. McCarthy, the first issue of the Pasadena Citizen 
was published December 4, 1947. The Citizen was an immediate success 
and quickly grew into one of the strongest papers in the region. By the 
early 1950's it had become a twice-a-week publication.
  Times were not always good for the Pasadena Citizen. In 1955, 
following several tumultuous ownership changes, the Citizen faced its 
most difficult challenge and temporarily shut down. Citizen employees 
stepped in to fill the void and soon had the paper on track and running 
again. Since that time, the paper has continued to prosper, adding new 
editions to provide service to the neighborhoods growing alongside 
Pasadena and, beginning in 1977, offering news service 7 days a week to 
its readers.
  Much has changed since the first edition of the Citizen rolled off 
the presses. In 1947, Pasadena was a small town of 17,000 tied to the 
growing east Texas oil industry. Today,

[[Page E2057]]

Pasadena is a diverse, vibrant city, with a population of 125,000. As 
the city has grown the Citizen has grown along with it. Through it 
all--the boom times and the busts--the Pasadena Citizen has served as 
the newspaper of record for the city's triumph and setbacks.
  Over the past 50 years, the Pasadena Citizen has faced all of the 
challenges confronting the newspapers of today--changing ownership and 
readership, the challenge of television, and new technologies--yet it 
has flourished because of its continued commitment to covering the 
local stories. The Citizen has become a model for other community 
papers to follow and, as it has for half a century, will continue to 
evolve to meet the economic and journalistic challenges of the 1990's 
and beyond.
  Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the Pasadena Citizen for 50 years of 
achievement in our community. The people who have made the Citizen what 
it is deserve our praise and our thanks.

                          ____________________