[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 118 (Wednesday, September 9, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H7462-H7463]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   RAY J. FAVRE POST OFFICE BUILDING

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 2623) to designate the United States Post Office located at 
16250 Highway 603 in Kiln, Mississippi, as the ``Ray J. Favre Post 
Office Building''.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 2623

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. DESIGNATION.

       The United States Post Office located at 16250 Highway 603 
     in Kiln, Mississippi, shall be known and designated as the 
     ``Ray J. Favre Post Office Building''.

     SEC. 2. REFERENCES.

       Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, 
     or other record of the United States to the United States 
     Post Office referred to in section 1 shall be deemed to be a 
     reference to the ``Ray J. Favre Post Office Building''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Sessions) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions).
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2623 was introduced on October 7, 1997, by our 
distinguished colleague from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor). The legislation 
enjoys the cosponsorship of the entire House delegation from the State 
of his Mississippi pursuant to the policy of the Committee on 
Government Reform and Oversight.
  H.R. 2623 designates the building of the United States Postal Service 
located at 16250 Highway 603 in Kiln, Mississippi as the ``Ray J. Favre 
Post Office.''
  Mr. Favre was appointed postmaster of Kiln in 1940 and served in that 
position until his retirement in 1976. He was known for his prompt, 
courteous, and efficient service to all who use the postal facility. On 
many occasions, he went beyond the call of duty to provide aid and 
assistance, particularly to the people who were indigent.
  The Hancock County Board of Supervisors honored Mr. Favre on his 
retirement by proclaiming August 29, 1976, as ``Ray Favre Day'' in 
Hancock County. The Veterans of Foreign Wars also held ceremonies at 
their post honoring him upon his retirement. He was a member of several 
civic associations in Kiln until his death in April of 1996.
  The Hancock County Board of Supervisors unanimously requested that 
the Kiln Post Office be named in Mr. Favre's honor.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge our colleagues to support this legislation and to 
honor Mr. Favre as a dedicated postal employee for his consistent work 
during his daily employment and for his exemplary work in the 
community.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, let me also rise in support of H.R. 2623. The House 
would have to take note that the only reason that

[[Page H7463]]

this bill is before us, and one of the greatest pleasures that I have 
had as ranking member of this Subcommittee on Postal Service, is that I 
have the opportunity to work so closely with my colleague, the 
gentleman from the great State of Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) who 
introduced and sponsored this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield whatever time he would need to the gentleman 
from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) for him to articulate to the House his 
reasons for offering this legislation.
  Mr. TAYLOR of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Fattah).
  I would like to tell my fellow members that this could well be the 
tale of two Favres. A few years ago, after the Dallas Cowboys defeated 
the Green Bay Packers in the NFL championship game on a Sunday, the 
following Friday, I visited a fish fry at St. Paul's Catholic School in 
Pass Christian, Mississippi.
  The purpose of the fish fry was to raise money for the elementary 
school, and it was done in a competition, where the group that raised 
the most money got to name the king and queen of St. Paul's carnival 
parade in Pass Christian.
  One of the contestants was a lovely lady by the name of Bonita Favre. 
She has the distinction of being the mother of three wonderful 
children, one of whom is Bret Favre.
  During the week that transpired between the Packers loss to the 
Cowboys and this Friday night, Bret was named Most Valuable Player of 
the NFL. So when I go to the fish fry on Friday night at Pass 
Christian, you would fully expect the recently appointed Most Valuable 
Player of the NFL to show up in a limousine, probably a Hollywood 
starlet on each arm, probably enough jewelry around his neck to retire 
the national debt.
  Let us just say that I was very pleasantly surprised as I walked into 
the school cafeteria and looked over in the corner to see a young man 
who had just been named the most valuable of the NFL in a T-shirt, 
wearing a pair of brown khaki pants and some tennis shoes.
  He is over in the corner, not talking to reporters, but playing rock, 
paper, and scissors with two local teenagers. I was thinking to myself 
I have seen all the people that have a lot of fame and idolization, and 
sometimes it does good things for them, and sometimes it ruins them. 
The first thought of mine is he is obviously handling this very well.
  Bret probably could have very easily written a check for his mom to 
win this contest, but they decided to do it the way everyone else does, 
with fish fries where the local fisherman donate the fish and the 
shrimp and the oysters. The local men get together, clean them, and 
prepare them. Everyone goes through the line at $5 a pop.
  I just thought it was absolutely remarkable that this young man, the 
son of two public schoolteachers in rural Mississippi, had done so well 
in such a short amount of time and handled it so well.
  Based on that, I wrote the Hancock County Board of Supervisors and 
said there is going to be a new post office in Kiln, Mississippi, the 
community nearest to where Bret is from. He is actually from a smaller 
community called Fenton. Maybe we should name it in honor of him.
  The board, in their wisdom, came back and really gave me a lesson in 
life. They said, think about it. This young man has had his photograph 
on the cover of almost every magazine and newspaper in the world. He 
has already been the Most Valuable Player. He will undoubtedly in his 
lifetime, and he since has won a couple of Super Bowls, won a Super 
Bowl and appeared in another. He gets plenty of idolization. Let us do 
something in honoring a good person.
  If you have had the great privilege of seeing the movie ``Saving 
Private Ryan,'' you know one of the most moving scenes at the end is 
when Private Ryan, the character who plays Private Ryan is crying at 
the grave site of one of the people, Captain John Miller, who saves his 
life. He turns to his wife and says, Am I a good man? Tell me I am a 
good man.
  The person that the Hancock County Board of Supervisors chose to 
honor with this post office was a good man. It marks the fourth good 
man that I have had the privilege of helping to, working with my 
colleagues, to name a building after.
  The first was my immediate predecessor, Congressman Larkin Smith, 
former sheriff and congressman, very well respected, someone else who 
worked himself up from his bootstraps and died tragically in a plane 
crash.
  Another was an incredibly brave young Mississippian from Eastabuchie, 
Mississippi, by the name of Roy Wheat who threw himself on a land mine 
during the Vietnam War to save the lives of three other Marines, who 
was later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
  A third was probably the most lovable man any city in Mississippi 
produced, by the name of Johnny Longo, who served for better than 30 
years as an elected official in his hometown of Waverly, Mississippi.
  Being a good man is more than receiving a Medal of Honor. It is more 
than being a Congressman. It is more than being a lifetime elected 
official. Being a good man is the greatest compliment that any of us 
can hope to obtain when it is all said and done about us.

                              {time}  1445

  Mr. Favre spent his life serving his hometown of Kiln, Mississippi. 
For 36 years he was their postmaster. He married a local girl in 1945, 
was the loving father of Rae Ann Normand, Nancy V. Smith and Edward R. 
Favre. He was very active in his church. But more than anything else, 
he served the people he loved for 36 years.
  About 4 years ago a heck of a lot of people were elected to Congress 
because they said they hated their country; they hated the people who 
worked for their country. I thought that was wrong then. I still think 
that is wrong. Mr. Favre loved his country and he loved serving his 
country. He did not need the limelight, he just wanted to do a good 
job.
  So I stand before my colleagues today, number one, to thank the 
Hancock County Board of Supervisors for honoring a good man, and I ask 
my fellow Members of Congress to do the same. And let us see to it that 
this great public servant, who served that community so well for so 
long, is honored in an appropriate manner.
  Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  Once again we have heard from the gentleman from Mississippi about 
people who have served our country not only as good husbands and 
fathers but also as postal employees, and I too give thanks for Mr. 
Favre, for his 36 years of service to the people of Mississippi and the 
people of the United States.
  Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gillmor). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2623.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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