[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 5 (Monday, January 13, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S226]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                        RETIREMENT OF GUY COATES

 Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I rise today on behalf of myself, 
Senator Breaux, and the entire State of Louisiana to pay tribute to a 
real Louisiana legend, Guy Coates.
  For the better part of 40 years, Guy Coates has reported on all 
aspects of Louisiana politics and State news. Guy Coates started his 
journalistic career as a reporter for KNOE-TV in Monroe and KSLA-TV in 
Shreveport. He joined the AP in 1968 in the New Orleans Bureau and 
moved to Baton Rouge in 1973. Guy became the bureau chief in Baton 
Rouge in 1991. He is currently the dean of Baton Rouge Press Corps.
  Mr. Coates has a long and distinguished career as one of Louisiana's 
finest reporters. Guy covered his first governor, Jimmie Davis, in 1962 
at a ground-breaking for Toledo Bend Lake. He covered his first 
legislative session in 1965 when John McKeithen was governor. For the 
AP, Coates has been involved in coverage of the New Orleans sniper; the 
1973 constitutional convention; the Luling ferry disaster; various 
racial demonstrations; the big '73 flood; every statewide political 
campaign and election since 1968; GOP and Democratic National 
Conventions; Apollo 14; the Louisiana visit of Poe John Paul II; 
executions at Angola; the Oakdale prison riots; and he was the only 
reporter invited to the marriage of Edwin Edwards and Candy Picou. Guy 
served as a witness to history for all of us when he was the only AP 
reporter on the Gulf Coast during the landfall of Hurricane Camille in 
1969.
  Guy was perhaps best known for his alter ego, Jethro. As one reporter 
and colleague of Guy put it, Guy ``was unique among AP writers for his 
political column, which included the homespun, irreverent observation 
of his fictional friend, Jethro.'' In Guy's final column, today, he 
writes, ``So, it's time to join my old column soul mate, Jethro 
Rotheschild, who retired to our make believe world in the garage a few 
years ago.'' The entire State of Louisiana is going to miss the 
poignant insights into the political arena that made his opinion 
invaluable in any Louisiana political discourse.
  I know that my colleague, Senator Breaux joins me in wishing Guy and 
his wife Jonica McDaniel many happy years together in whatever 
endeavors they choose to pursue. Louisiana is losing one of our finest 
reporters, and we are better off having had him report on our State, 
Nation and the world.

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