[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 38 (Monday, March 30, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S2760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO JOHN PERKINS

  Mr. COCHRAN. Madam President, at the end of this month, my long-time 
good friend, John Perkins, will retire from service as a member of my 
personal staff. He has served as press secretary in my office since 
August 1979.
  Our friendship dates from the 1940s when we were students in 
elementary school at Byram Consolidated School near Jackson, MS. We 
also were members of the same Boy Scout troop.
  John got his first newspaper job when we were in high school. My 
father was our principal, and he and our football coach were asked to 
recommend a stringer for the Jackson, MS, papers to report scores and 
highlights of our football games. The person they recommended was John 
Perkins. The year was 1953, and John was in the ninth grade.
  From that beginning, he went on to serve on the student newspaper 
staff at Millsaps College where he graduated with a major in history in 
1961. After college, he served in the U.S. Army Reserves, and then 
became a docket and reading clerk in the Mississippi State Senate.
  He attended graduate school in journalism at the University of 
Mississippi and worked in press relations for the Charles Sullivan 
campaign for Governor, in our State, in 1963.
  He then held a series of newspaper jobs covering a range of subjects 
from sports to local governments at the Jackson Daily News and the 
Meridian Star before being named managing editor of the Daily 
Corinthian in 1965. The next year John returned to the Meridian Star as 
managing editor and political writer.
  He was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives for a 4-
year term in 1967 and was an active member of the coalition that 
successfully worked for passage of Governor John Bell Williams' highway 
program in the House.
  When David Bowen was elected to Congress in 1972, he recruited John 
Perkins to come to Washington as his press secretary. As a member of 
our State's delegation in the House, I had the opportunity to observe 
the work of all the press secretaries from Mississippi. And soon after 
I became a Member of the Senate, I invited John to join my staff.
  I have enjoyed very much working with him for these 18\1/2\ years. 
Our State and Nation have been well-served by the diligence, dedication 
and commitment to excellence of John Perkins. He has put forth his best 
efforts to reflect credit on me, our State, and the U.S. Senate, and he 
has succeeded.
  He will be missed by us all, but we intend to stay in close touch and 
continue the close friendship that began 50 years ago.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DeWINE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DeWINE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed for 
the next 8 minutes as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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