[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 28, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E47]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                A GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY FOR A GOLDEN COUPLE

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES A. BARCIA

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 28, 1998

  Mr. BARCIA. Mr. Speaker, anything of real value endures, and the 
longer it endures, the greater its value. If it is possible for 
something to become even more priceless than priceless, it is the love 
two people have for each other that results in marriage, the 
establishment and growth of a family, and a protective nest from all 
the challenges the world presents to us.
  I am pleased to tell our colleagues that on December 20th, two 
wonderful people, Donald and Dorothy Keinath of Caro, Michigan, 
celebrated their most special 50th anniversary of marriage. Together 
with their children Karen and Russell and his wife Mary, their 
grandchildren Natalie, Anne, Joseph, and Julia, and the great number of 
friends their years of work and community involvement have brought to 
them, they were able to celebrate their anniversary in a manner 
befitting their years of devotion.
  Don had two instances of great luck about fifty years ago. First, 
while he was a private first class in the Marine Corps, he was one of 
the lucky young men at the time who had the war in the Pacific come to 
an end before his unit was scheduled to ship out. Then at the Tuscola 
County Fair he met his future wife, Dorothy Brinkman, who liked looking 
at the pigs Don had on display. After their wedding on December 20, 
1947, they honeymooned in Washington, DC, marking the first of many 
trips the couple would make to Washington and elsewhere since that 
time. They love to travel, having journeyed to places as intriguing as 
Australia and Morocco.
  Their home, however, has been their secure base for their years 
together. Don has been a farmer the entire time, still operating a 420 
acre farm producing dry beans, sugar beets, barley, and wheat. He has 
served as a member of the Michigan Bean Commission for six years, and 
has also been a director of important sugar beet grower associations--
the Farmers and Manufacturers, and now the Great Lakes Sugar Beet 
Growers Association--for thirty years. For twenty-nine of those years, 
he has served as an officer, including his current tenure as President 
of the Caro Sugar Beet Growers Association. He also received Michigan 
State University's Distinguished Service to Agriculture award in 1993.
  He has been very active with his church, St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 
including its building committee. Both he and Dorothy have served as 
Sunday School teachers. Dorothy has also been heavily involved with the 
Altar Guild at the church, and had also been a teacher before the needs 
of the family guided her into other activities.
  Mr. Speaker, it is truly difficult for me to think of two kinder or 
more generous people than Don and Dorothy Keinath. Their lives together 
have been a blessing for each other, and a treat for those of us 
fortunate enough to know them. I urge you and all of our colleagues to 
join me in wishing them the happiest of anniversaries, on this their 
fiftieth, and many more to come.

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