[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 70 (Thursday, June 8, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4817-S4818]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO JOHN COOLIDGE

 Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, my home town of Shrewsbury, 
Vermont, can be a good way farther from Plymouth than it looks, at 
first glance, on a map. Though the towns' borders touch, Plymouth is on 
the east side of the Green Mountains in Windsor Country, Shrewsbury's 
in Rutland County high on the mountains' west side. In the winter the 
drive is about 25 miles, though it shortens to seven in the summer, 
when the old CCC Road is open. But the two old Vermont mountain towns 
are, in reality, close in spirit, due in considerable part to the 
``Coolidge connection''.
  I thought about this last week on receiving the sad news of the death 
of John Coolidge, at 93, the son of President Calvin Coolidge. I had 
seldom been to The Notch without seeing John, and his greeting was 
always warm and I usually heard another fascinating story about his 
father, Calvin, or his mother, Grace. Though father and son shared 
reputations for being men of few words as Calvin's autobiography shows, 
he was capable of true eloquence, as was John. Read his introduction to 
the book ``Your Son Calvin Coolidge'', if you doubt it.
  But as I was saying, the Coolidges helped make Plymouth and 
Shrewsbury close. Calvin's sister Abbie taught school in Northam, 
before her early death. Aurora Pierce, the long-time housekeeper at the 
Coolidge homestead was a product of Shrewsbury. Her cousin Marjorie 
Pierce, of Shrewsbury, recalls that John Coolidge often stopped by on 
his annual summer visit to Aurora's grave in the Northam Cemetery. 
Aurora lived at the homestead long after Calvin Coolidge's death and 
jealously guarded its historic contents. We owe much to her for 
preserving, virtually intact, the contents of the house. She was, in 
her own unique way, a preservationist. So, too, was John.
  John once told me that his grandfather, Col. John Coolidge said that 
to keep the Notch looking as it was would be the best memorial to 
President Coolidge. The Notch today remains virtually as it was when 
Calvin Coolidge was president. John Coolidge, working closely with the 
State of Vermont and through the wonderful Calvin Coolidge Memorial 
Foundation, which he and his wife Florence, were instrumental in 
founding, saw to that. It is comforting to know that a Vermonter like 
myself can always drop in on The Notch and see the Vermont of olden 
times, of open fields, farm homes, barns in good repair, all living on, 
and to know what a remarkable event in our nation's history happened in 
that remote setting-the 1923 homestead inaugural.
  I was happy three years ago to be able to deliver a federal 
appropriation to the Coolidge Foundation and I know it is being well 
used, continuing the legacy of Calvin Coolidge, a legacy so well 
carried on by his son.
  John Coolidge left many legacies. He nobly and eloquently bore the 
mantle of first son, which came so suddenly upon him with his father's 
early death. He had a successful career in business, including the 
restarting of the Cheese Factory at the Notch. Time and again through 
countless interviews he showed the world what a true Vermonter was all 
about. And he made sure that the world ``let Plymouth be'' as it was in 
his father's time.
  John Coolidge had always lived in Plymouth from spring until after 
the

[[Page S4818]]

autumn leaves were gone. Then, two years ago, he came home to Plymouth 
Notch to live full time. One paper said he'd come home to die, but he 
really came home to live. He was proud that he spent his first two 
winters at The Notch and was added to the Plymouth checklist.
  Now he will rest at the Notch Cemetery, besides his father and 
mother, his wife, his brother Calvin Jr., who died during the Coolidge 
presidency, and long generations of Coolidges. He will rest in a green 
and peaceful setting, in a valley he did so much to preserve. Vermont 
needs to forge on preserving its wondrous landscape, for it is too 
precious and rare to lose. John Coolidge knew that well and his beloved 
Notch will long serve as an example for coming generations of 
Vermonters, indeed, for all Americans.

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