[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 98 (Tuesday, July 25, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1314]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING MINNIE ELIZABETH SAPP

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. VAN HILLEARY

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 25, 2000

  Mr. HILLEARY. Mr. Speaker, it is with great joy that I honor Minnie 
Elizabeth Sapp, who recently celebrated her one-hundredth birthday. 
Mrs. Sapp had the rare fortune of seeing a complete century unfold. It 
was on July 12, 1900 that Mrs. Sapp was born--in the log house built by 
her grandfather, James Waymon Mitchell, on Lost Creek in White County, 
and it was on July 12, 2000 that we celebrated her one-hundredth 
birthday.
  On Christmas Day in 1921, Mrs. Sapp married Homer Floyd Sapp in the 
same room in the log house where she was born. The couple traveled by 
buggy to Homer's father's home, at what is now Rim Rock Mesa at Bon 
Air. Six years later they moved to a forty-acre farm on Corolla Road.
  The couple has seven children. The two boys died as infants, and 
sadly one daughter, Helen, passed away at 14. The other four daughters 
survived: Josephine, Norma, Evelyn, and Betty. Although her husband 
Homer died in 1980, Mrs. Sapp continues to live at the farm that the 
couple moved to 73 years ago.
  In 1993, Mrs. Sapp wrote her personal memoirs, and among her memories 
are recollections of lighting the house with coal lamps and making lye 
and soap. The United States has changed much since the days of her 
childhood, but her memories of quilting, walking barefoot to free 
school and later attending boarding school at Pleasant Hill Academy, 
carrying water from the spring, and keeping the fire going year round 
have shaped a strong, loving woman who is devoted to her family and 
friends.
  Two weeks ago I had the honor of attending Mrs. Sapp's birthday 
celebration, and on the 16th of July the Bon Air United Methodist 
Church honored her with a service, singing, and presentation of a 
plaque. The family and friends who surround her serve as a testament to 
the impact this amazing woman has on all who meet her.
  Truly, Minnie Elizabeth Sapp is a blessing to her community. Mrs. 
Sapp's devotion to family and religion has seen her through 100 years, 
and I am confident that it is her love of life which will fill every 
day that is to come. That is why it is the spirit of all who know and 
love her that I wish to congratulate Mrs. Sapp on her one-hundredth 
birthday celebration.

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