[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 135 (Wednesday, October 10, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10454-S10455]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO BEA GADDY

 Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to the life 
and legacy of Mrs. Bea Gaddy--a great lady whose mission was to improve 
the lives of our poorest citizens.
  Bea Gaddy was a legend in Baltimore. Her life was one of service to 
the poor. She worked tirelessly to provide food, housing, opportunity--
and hope--to Baltimore's neediest citizens. She transformed her home in 
East Baltimore into the Patterson Park Emergency Food Center. She 
worked tirelessly to provide housing to the homeless. She worked to 
improve education and housing. She even made sure children had presents 
at Christmas. Thousands of people reached out to her for help. She 
helped them all--and she did it with compassion and respect.
  Mrs. Gaddy's Thanksgiving dinners are legendary--providing dinner to 
as many as 20,000 people. She showed us all that the best way to show 
thankfulness for the blessings of life was to share these blessings 
with others.
  She knew what is was like to be hungry, and to not have enough money 
to pay for heat. Because she knew what it felt like to be poor--she 
knew how to help people to help themselves.
  I can't imagine Baltimore without her. Yet my hope is that she has 
taught so many people what it means to care--that her work will 
continue.
  Mrs. Gaddy received a lot of honors--including the ``Marylander of 
the

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Year,'' and one of former President Bush's ``Thousand Points of 
Light.'' Mrs. Gaddy certainly deserved these honors--but what mattered 
more to her was that these honors helped her to help even more people.
  Mrs. Gaddy's passing is a great loss--but her life was a triumph. My 
thoughts and prayers are with her many friends and family--and with the 
many people whose lives she touched.

                          ____________________