[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 130 (Monday, October 7, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10052-S10053]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          DEATH OF JO-ANNE COE

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed 
to the consideration of S. Res. 335, submitted earlier today by 
Senators Daschle and Lott.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 335) relative to the death of Jo-Anne 
     Coe.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, Jo-Anne Coe, who made history as the first 
woman to serve as the Secretary of the Senate after our good friend Bob 
Dole became Majority Leader in 1985, died suddenly on Friday, September 
27, of an aneurysm.
  We all have experienced the love and friendship of those most loyal 
staff who work for and with us over a period of years and eras in our 
lives. And I am calling to the Senate's attention today the loss of Jo-
Anne Coe because she was an especially cherished friend and confidante 
of the entire Dole family, most recently serving as Bob's indispensable 
Chief of Staff in the private sector. Some referred to her as Bob's 
alter ego or ``Bob Dole in an ultra suede suit.'' All who knew her 
respected and admired her talent and loyalty to Bob and the Senate 
institution.
  On behalf of the entire Senate family, I offer our profound sympathy 
and prayers to Jo-Anne's family, especially to her daughter Kathryn Lee 
Coe Coombs of Alexandria, VA.
  I ask unanimous consent that a tribute to Jo-Anne Coe be printed in 
the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

 Jo-Anne Coe, Dole Chief of Staff, First Woman Secretary of the Senate

       Jo-Anne Lee Coe, 69, Chief of Staff to former Senate 
     Majority Leader Bob Dole, and the first woman to serve as 
     Secretary of the US Senate, died September 27 at Inova 
     Fairfax Hospital of an aneurysm. She was a Fairfax County 
     resident.
       Mrs. Coe had worked for Senator Dole for nearly 35 years, 
     first joining the staff of then-Congressman Dole in early 
     1968 as he prepared for his first Senate race. initially a 
     constituent caseworker, she rose through the ranks to become 
     office manager.
       In late 1975, she briefly left the senator's staff to 
     accept an appointment in the Ford Administration. A few 
     months later, President Ford tapped Senator Dole to be his 
     Vice Presidential running mate and Mrs. Coe became Office 
     Manager for the Vice Presidential campaign.
       After the campaign, she returned as Office Manager in the 
     Dole Senate office and became the staff member designated as 
     political liaison to his campaign committee under the new 
     Federal Election Campaign Act regulations.
       When Senator Dole became Senate Majority Leader in 1985 he 
     nominated Mrs. Coe as his choice for Secretary of the Senate. 
     She was the first woman in history to be elected to this 
     post. As well as supervising the Senate's vast administrative 
     apparatus, historical and archival functions and

[[Page S10053]]

     Interparlimentary relations with other countries; the 
     Secretary of the Senate has numerous legislative and 
     parliamentary functions including presiding over the Senate 
     during the election of the President Pro Tempore.
       Upon the Democrats regaining control of the senate in 1987, 
     she returned to the Dole Senate staff until joining Senator 
     Dole's 1988 Presidential campaign. Following the campaign, 
     she was named Executive Director of Campaign America, the 
     leadership PAC she had helped Senator Dole found.
       Never one to seek the limelight for herself, she was 
     surprised at the media attention she received during the 1996 
     campaign as the GOP Presidential nominee's confidante. 
     However, in many ways she was seen politically as Senator 
     Dole's alter ego. In a feature article during the 1996 
     campaign, the New York Times Rick Berke called her ``Bob Dole 
     in ultra suede suit.''
       Following the Presidential campaign, senator Dole joined 
     the Washington law firm of Verner Liipfert MacPherson and 
     Hand as Special Counsel and Mrs. Coe joined him there as his 
     chief of staff, and advised clients on legislative strategy. 
     She also managed Senator Dole's personal business interests, 
     including relationships with speakers bureau and the 
     publishers of his books, and assisted on a voluntary basis 
     with fundraising for a number of causes promoted by senator 
     Dole, including the World War II Memorial Commission, the 
     Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, and 
     the Families of Freedom Scholarship fund, co-chaired by 
     Senator Dole and Former President Clinton to assist the 
     families of 9/11 victims.
       Born Jo-Anne Lee Johnson in Coronado, California in 1933, 
     Mrs. Coe was the daughter of Admiral Roy Lee Johnson, 
     Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet during the Vietnam 
     conflict and the first commander of the USS Forrestal; and of 
     the former Margaret Louise Gross of Georgetown, now both 
     deceased. On her mother's side, she was a seventh generation 
     Washingtonian.
       Mrs. Coe attended the College of William and Mary and spent 
     a year at Alexandria's George Washington High School during 
     one of her father's many assignments in the Washington area. 
     She was briefly married while in college to Benjamin P. Coe 
     of New York and leaves one daughter, Kathryn Lee Coe Coombs, 
     of Alexandria, Virginia.
       She first came to Capitol Hill as an aide to Representative 
     Harold D. Cooley, a conservative Democrat and powerful 
     chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, who was credited 
     with brokering the deal whereby then-Senator John F. Kennedy 
     chose Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson as his running 
     mate.
       In 1962-67, she left the Washington area to follow her 
     parents in her father's various assignments to senior U.S. 
     Navy posts in Nebraska, Japan and Hawaii. She worked as a 
     secretary for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force, returning to 
     Capitol Hill in early 1968 upon her father's retirement. She 
     interviewed for jobs among her Agriculture Committee contacts 
     on both sides of the aisle and accepted a job with then-Rep. 
     Bob Dole, whom she'd briefly met when he was a freshman 
     Congressman on the Committee in 1961.
       A former children's church choir instructor, she was an 
     active parishioner at the church of St. Lawrence the Martyr 
     in Franconia and a donor to a variety of Catholic and other 
     charities. A month before her death, she had bought a 
     historic farmhouse in King George County, Virginia and was in 
     the midst of planning to work part time and telecommute so 
     that she could spend more time painting and pursuing other 
     hobbies.
       In addition to her daughter she also leaves a nephew, Kevin 
     Lee Johnson of Scottsdale, Arizona and niece, Kindra Lee 
     Johnson Vincent, of Seattle; children of her late brother Roy 
     Lee Johnson, Jr. The family and friends are establishing the 
     Jo-Anne Coe Memorial Foundation to aid a variety of 
     charitable and educational causes, including establishing an 
     annual award to recognize up and coming young women on 
     Capitol Hill who exhibit the traits of honesty, integrity, 
     loyalty and humility for which Mrs. Coe was known.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the resolution and 
preamble be agreed to en bloc, the motion to reconsider be laid on the 
table, and that any statements related to this matter be printed in the 
Record, with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 335) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 335

       Whereas Jo-Anne Coe served as an employee of the Senate of 
     the United States and ably and faithfully upheld the high 
     standards and traditions of the staff of the Senate from 
     January 3, 1969 until January 31, 1989 for a period that 
     included ten Congresses;
       Whereas Jo-Anne Coe was the first woman in history to be 
     elected as the Secretary of the Senate in 1985;
       Whereas Jo-Anne Coe served as Secretary of the Senate, 
     Administrative Director of the Committee on Finance, 
     Administrative Director of the Office of Senator Bob Dole and 
     Chief of Staff under Senator Dole;
       Whereas Jo-Anne Coe faithfully discharged the difficult 
     duties and responsibilities of a wide variety of important 
     and demanding positions in public life, with honesty, 
     integrity, loyalty, and humility;
       Whereas Jo-Anne Coe's clear understanding and appreciation 
     of the challenges facing the Nation has left her mark on 
     those many areas of public life: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow 
     and deep regret the announcement of the death of Jo-Anne Coe.
       Resoved, That the Secretary of the Senate communicate these 
     resolutions to the House of Representatives and transmit an 
     enrolled copy thereof to the family of deceased.
       Resolved, That when the Senate recesses or adjourns today, 
     it stand recessed or adjourned as a further mark of respect 
     to the memory of Jo-Ann Coe.

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