[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 11, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1209]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING THE LIFE OF VICENTA B. PEREDO

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. MADELEINE Z. BORDALLO

                                of guam

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 11, 2003

  Ms. BORDALLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to inform the House that 
Vicenta B. Peredo recently passed away. She was also known as ``Seabee 
Betty'' and for years she had provided a home away from home for the 
Seabees in Guam. She frequently held fiestas for the deployed 
battalions, which were always well attended, and gave her world 
renowned status within the Seabees. She was also annually crowned queen 
of the Seabees Ball. It was said that stories circulated about Seabee 
Betty even in Gulf Port, Mississippi.
  Vicenta Peredo lived in the village of Yona, where she held these 
fiestas since 1951. At the fiestas she served all different types of 
local food to give the Seabees the experience of Chamorro hospitality 
and to make them feel right at home.
  Even the Seabees helped to make sure the fiestas would continue when 
her house was damaged by a typhoon. After the roof of her kitchen 
collapsed, one of her daughters jokingly said that the Seabees might 
fix it tomorrow. It actually took the Seabees two days to fix her 
kitchen.
  Vicenta Peredo also had fiestas that coincided with the birthdays of 
the Saints. She would pray for nine days, a novena, then cook a large 
amount of food and invite the Seabees over to enjoy the fiesta. She 
also wanted to give the Seabees a place to get away from the Naval Base 
and enjoy the rest of the island. She was a woman who always thought 
about the Seabees first and in return she received the rare distinction 
of being named an honorary Navy Seabee.
  I join the Peredo family and all the people of Guam in sorrow that 
Vicenta Peredo is no longer with us, but I am proud to say that she 
touched so many people during her life. I am also very proud of the way 
that she reached out to the Seabees and her ability to be a great 
symbol of the generosity that the people of Guam have to extend to the 
visitors of the island.
  We love you Vicenta and our thoughts and prayers are with your 
family. I am sure she will be remembered by the Seabees with the honor 
and generosity she showed them in life. She showed us all that one 
person can make a difference, that one person can affect many lives.




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