[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 44 (Thursday, April 18, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E571]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E571]]
 HONORING MR. KIRK LOGGINS OF NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE ON THE OCCASION OF 
                   HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE TENNESSEAN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BOB CLEMENT

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 18, 2002

  Mr. CLEMENT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Kirk Loggins of 
Nashville, Tennessee on the occasion of his retirement from the 
Tennessean newspaper where he covered government, politics, and the 
court system for nearly thirty years.
  Kirk Loggins was born in Jackson Clinic in Dickson, Tennessee on 
October 20, 1946. A native of Middle Tennessee, he grew up on a farm 
near Charlotte, Tennessee, where his family had lived since the 1830s. 
Growing up, he regularly worked on the farm, milking cows, helping with 
the tobacco crop, while longing to experience city life.
  An early achiever, he graduated valedictorian of Charlotte High 
School in 1964, where he also served as editor of the school newspaper. 
His early involvement in journalism helped land him a summer job at the 
Dickson County Herald newspaper prior to entering Vanderbilt University 
in the fall of 1964. Loggins attended Vanderbilt as a Rockefeller 
Foundation Scholar and spent the summer of 1966 working in Washington, 
D.C., as an intern at the U.S. Office of Education.
  Graduating from Vanderbilt in June 1968 with a major in English and a 
minor in History, he went to work just three days later as associate 
editor of the Dickson County Herald. In fact, his first day on the job 
was the morning after Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. 
During his four years at the Dickson County weekly paper, he earned the 
Tennessee Press Associations Most Improved Award two consecutive years.
  His experience led to a position at the Tennessean, where he was 
originally assigned to the state desk for the first three years at the 
paper. From 1975-1976 he served as the Washington correspondent, but 
returned to cover the local court system in December 1976. He has 
covered the courts continuously since that time, with the exception of 
a yearlong break to investigate the Ku Klux Klan in 1979-1980, and for 
a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship at the University of 
Michigan in 1982-1983.
  Loggins has covered literally hundreds of criminal trials, including 
15 death penalty cases, and witnessed Tennessee's first execution of a 
prisoner in 40 years, in April 2000. Beloved by his colleagues and his 
rivals alike, he has been honored for his work by the Nashville Bar 
Association and the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
  On a personal note, I will always appreciate the professionalism he 
exhibited in his reporting of the death and trial of my former Chief of 
Staff, Alex Haught, who was killed by a drunk driver in Nashville three 
years ago. Loggins is an outstanding journalist who serves the 
profession nobly and accurately. His work will be missed by thousands 
of readers and we wish him the very best in his retirement and all of 
his future endeavors.

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