[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 73 (Tuesday, June 9, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H4299]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REMEMBERING EDDIE RABBITT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, a few years ago I was riding on 
an airplane, and I sat down next to a fellow who was a little reluctant 
to start talking to me initially. But we had about a 3-hour flight, 
and, as the flight progressed, I got a chance to get to know this 
fellow. His name was Eddie Rabbitt, and he was a country and western 
singer who over the last 20 years had 26 number one country hits. And 
Eddie and I became very good friends, and we talked on the phone quite 
frequently. We did not get together very much, but we talked on the 
phone on a regular basis.
  And about a year ago I found out that Eddie was suffering from lung 
cancer. He was 55 years old at the time, and he had part of his lung 
removed, and he went through chemotherapy and all the other things that 
people go through when they suffer from cancer of almost any type 
anymore. And Eddie was a very courageous fellow. He fought very, very 
hard to whip cancer, and they thought that they did have it whipped 
but, unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago Eddie Rabbitt passed away.
  He was one of the finest men I had the opportunity to know. He was a 
good family man. He feared God. He cared about his country, and he 
believed that entertainment, country and western entertainment, should 
be very clean and free from obscenities. And he talked about that quite 
frequently.
  He was one of the nicest guys that I had the opportunity to know over 
the past several years, and he will be missed by me and by a lot of 
other people across the country who really loved and admired his work.
  At the height of his career, he decided to cut back on his 
performances because he had a son Timothy who had liver disease, and 
his son died in 1985, 1 month shy of his second birthday. It was very 
difficult for him, and he decided to cut back on his work so he could 
spend more time with his family. Rabbitt and his wife Janine had two 
other children, daughter Demelza, 16, and son Tommy, 11. They lived in 
the Nashville suburb of Franklin, Tennessee.
  He was a wonderful man. He was a man who was loved by people all 
across this country. He was a great entertainer, a great artist, and he 
will be missed by people all over this country and all over the world.

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