[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E841]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO BETTY ADELSTEIN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOSE E. SERRANO

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 4, 1999

  Mr. SERRANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Mrs. Betty 
Adelstein, an outstanding individual who has devoted her life to her 
family and to serving the community. Mrs. Adelstein will turn 90 on 
Wednesday and celebrated May 2, 1999 at a party given her family and 
friends.
  She is a vibrant, dynamic, caring woman who drives to St. Vincent 
Hospital three days a week to volunteer in the office of the Director 
of Pediatrics. She has accumulated over 10,000 hours of volunteer 
service at the hospital and, during the past twenty years, she has 
given of herself and her time to various Staten Island organizations. 
Before moving to Staten Island, she spent nearly fifty years as a 
resident of the Bronx.
  Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Adelstein was born in New Britain, Connecticut on 
May 5, 1909, a first generation American. From the age of five, she 
helped sell newspapers in her father's candy store. At fourteen years 
of age, after the shop was closed, she was taken out of school and 
brought to New York to help in the vegetable store her father opened 
there, leaving her mother, 4 brothers and a sister behind. When she was 
sixteen, the family moved to the Bronx from New Britain.
  Mrs. Adelstein finished high school at night. Several years later, 
she meet her husband, David, an electrical engineer. They were married 
in 1932 and remained in the Bronx for forty-one years until his death 
in 1973. In 1975, she moved to Staten Island to be near her daughter, 
son-in-law and grandson. It was then last that she began her long 
career as a volunteer, which continues to this day. She is truly a 
source of inspiration to all who know her.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in wishing a happy 90th 
birthday to Betty Adelstein.

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