[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 28, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E232-E233]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO JOYCE RHENEY
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HON. JAMES E. CLYBURN
of south carolina
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, February 28, 2001
Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask my colleagues to join
me in paying tribute to Joyce Rheney who on February 14, 2001 was
honored as South Carolina Mother of the Year 2001. The Mother of the
Year Committee recognizes the dignity of motherhood and the influence
that mothers have on their families, professions, communities and
churches.
Along with her duties as mother and wife, Mrs. Rheney manages to find
time to donate her talents to her community in several capacities. She
is a member of Orangeburg City Council, serving her 12th year in
office. She is an active representative of the Downtown Orangeburg
Revitalization Association board and served as co-chair on the
committee to renovate Steyenson Auditorium. She volunteered to serve on
the Foundation Board of TRMC and was the 1997 co-chair of the fund-
raising gala. The funds raised by this gala are used in the community
for hospice cancer patient care and Camp Catch-A-Breath. She was
elected president of the foundation for 2000-2001.
[[Page E233]]
Mrs. Rheney is a 1949 graduate of Jefferson-Hillman School of Nursing
in Birmingham, Alabama. Her first job was as director of nursing at a
tuberculosis sanitarium in Decatur, Georgia. After her move to South
Carolina, she accepted positions in the surgical unit of Roper Hospital
and later as pediatric head nurse at Saint Francis Hospital in
Charleston, South Carolina.
Upon moving to Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1954, Mrs. Rheney
immediately became active in the community. She held memberships in the
Junior Service League, the Medical Alliance, and the Salvation Army
Advisory Board. In the 1960's and 1970's she was an active supporter
and volunteer for many activities at Wade Hampton Academy, where her
children were students. Mrs. Rheney and her husband, Dr. John Rheney,
Jr. are the parents of four children: John III, a local dentist; Betsy,
a human resources representative in Aiken; Bruce, a local bank vice-
president; and David, a Greenville attorney. The Rheneys raised their
children in a loving, Christian home, encouraging them to love God, one
another, and themselves.
As South Carolina's Mother of the Year, Mrs. Rheney will represent
the state in Portland, Oregon in April at the national convention of
American Mothers, Inc., a non-profit, interfaith organization founded
for the purpose of developing and strengthening the moral and spiritual
foundation of America's families. I am privileged to serve parts of
Orangeburg county in this august body, a county which has seen three
other of its outstanding women attain the state's Mother of the Year
honor. Mr. Speaker, please join me in honoring Mrs. Joyce Rheney, for
her outstanding work as an exemplary mother and unselfish community
servant.
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