[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1358-E1359]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         IN REMEMBRANCE OF SUSAN YOACHUM--POLITICS WITH PASSION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 22, 1999

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, sadly I rise to remind my colleagues that 
today marks the first anniversary of the passing of Susan Yoachum, one 
of the most respected political writers in California.
  Born on May 12, 1955 in Dallas, Texas, Susan Gail Yoachum graduated 
in 1975 from Southern Methodist University in Dallas with bachelors' 
degrees in journalism and political science. She was a reporter for the 
Dallas Morning News, the Independent Journal in Marin County and the 
San Jose Mercury-News, where she was part of the news team that won a 
1990 Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake.
  At the Mercury-News she exposed chemical contamination of drinking 
water in South San Jose, disclosed unsatisfactory medical care for the 
indigent, and wrote about industrial espionage. She joined the San 
Francisco Chronicle in 1990. She wrote some of the biggest political 
stories of the 80's and 90's. She covered national, state, and local 
politics for the Chronicle. Her assignments included the 1992 
presidential campaign, the governor's race in 1990 and 1994, the 1991 
San Francisco Mayoral race and the 1992 U.S. Senate race. She also 
wrote in-depth about issues, from affirmative action to abortion, from 
tobacco tax to the hazards of toxic chemicals. Susan was promoted to 
political editor in 1994.
  Her love of language surfaced at an early age: She become the 
National Spelling Bee Champion in 1969, winning her title by correctly 
spelling the word, `interlocutory.'' Susan was renowned for her 
wonderful wit and sense of humor.
  In 1992, she was the first to call Democratic Senate candidates 
Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer the ``Thelma and Louise of American 
politics.''
  She had a passion for politics--the drama, the intrigue and, most 
important, the effect on the lives of ordinary citizens. She brought an 
unusual combination of idealism, pragmatism, and skepticism to her 
work.
  Last year, when the candidates for California's governorship debated, 
Susan wrote one last memorable piece of political analysis.
  ``What I was hoping for, while I've been sidelines by illness, was a 
discussion of issues and what difference it would make who ends up 
being elected governor in a time of prosperity,'' she wrote. ``I wanted 
to see the candidates discuss their plans for schools instead of acting 
like school bullies in their 30-second ads.''
  Susan brought to her fight against breast cancer the same indomitable 
spirit, tenacity, passion, and humor that served her so well as a 
political writer.
  She was called a ``real life Murphy Brown'' for her courage in 
sharing her personal battle

[[Page E1359]]

with cancer with hundreds of thousands of readers. But Susan was more 
than that. Her work has been a lighthouse beam through the fog of local 
and national politics,'' wrote the Wall Street Journal's Marilyn Chase. 
``She stands as a model of professionalism and courage in the 
workplace. The lesson for colleagues of cancer survivors: 
Professionalism doesn't disappear with a diagnosis.''
  Susan wrote movingly about the 180,000 women who get breast cancer 
each year. ``I have metastatic breast cancer,'' she wrote last 
September. ``It's a tough word to spell and an even harder one to say, 
but it's meaning is rather simple. It means a runaway strain is 
careening through my body. I want there to be a face that goes with 
these statistics. It certainly doesn't have to be my face: it can be 
the face of someone you surely know and love who has had her life torn 
apart by this disease. This carnage has to stop. I wrote to plead for 
more and better research, for more and better treatment. Like too many 
women before me, I wrote to plead: Find something to save my life. To 
save all of our lives.''
  We can best remember Susan by working to ensure that America's 
families are spared the suffering she experienced.

                          ____________________