[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 126 (Tuesday, September 25, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1728]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO LISTON RAMSEY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES H. TAYLOR

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 25, 2001

  Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the memory 
of the Honorable Liston B. Ramsey, a resident of the Eleventh 
Congressional District of North Carolina, who died on September 2, 
2001.
  Rep. Ramsey served nineteen terms as a Democrat in the North Carolina 
State House of Representatives, including an unprecedented eight years 
as Speaker of the House. Liston Ramsey put Western North Carolina on 
the political map and used his influence in the legislature, for the 
benefit of his constituents.
  Rep. Liston Ramsey was first elected to the legislature from Madison 
County in 1961. In those days, before the interstate highway system 
served our region, legislators from Western North Carolina faced an 
eight-hour drive from the mountains across the state to Raleigh. Liston 
Ramsey faithfully made that trip for years in order to be a voice and a 
force for the mountain region.
  In rankings by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research, 
Rep. Ramsey consistently ranked as one of the most powerful legislators 
in the state. Ramsey ranked as the most powerful lawmaker during his 
four terms as speaker, was eleventh in 1989, twelfth in 1991, ninth in 
1993, twenty-third in 1995, and nineteenth in 1997.
  Among projects that Rep. Ramsey played a key role in funding for 
Western North Carolina were: Haywood Community College; Southwestern 
Community College; Western Carolina University; UNC-Asheville; the 
North Carolina Arboretum; the Western North Carolina Farmers' Market; 
and countless roads.
  I know all my colleagues join me in expressing condolences to his 
family members: daughter Martha Louise and her husband, Robert Donald 
Banks of Marshall; two sisters, Marie Prichard and Grace Castelloe, 
both of Asheville; one stepsister, Edna Sprinkle of Asheville.

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