[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 102 (Friday, July 11, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1451]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO DEIRDRE L. BAILEY

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ROBERT A. BRADY

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 10, 2003

  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the memory of 
one of Philadelphia's true rising stars, Deirdre L. Bailey. A graduate 
of Spelman College and Villanova University School of Law, she was a 
licensed attorney and a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association.
  I first met Deirdre shortly after my joining this body. At the time, 
she was a senior staffer for my good friend and constituent State 
Representative Dwight Evans. Her responsibilities included handling his 
appropriations work, with a particular eye to redeveloping the Ogontz/
West Oak Lane community Mr. Evans and I are honored to represent. She 
was a tireless and forceful advocate for the community. Her assistance 
was vital to our successful efforts to win Federal funding for the 
Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corporation.
  In 2002, Keystone Mercy/AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan was able to 
lure her away from Pennsylvania's capitol in 2002. In her new capacity 
of Associate Vice President of External Affairs, Deirdre worked with my 
staff and those of other Members and state officials in Pennsylvania, 
Kentucky, South Carolina and other states to provide critically needed 
health insurance for low income and working people. Her knowledge of 
the health care delivery and insurance systems were of great value to 
me as I weighed the complex issues surrounding them.
  Mr. Speaker, Deirdre Bailey might have been content to pursue 
excellence in her government and corporate careers. Instead, she choose 
to devote her near limitless energy to serve those less blessed. She 
worked with dedication and generosity for charitable causes, including 
the Children's Scholarship Fund, Listen Inc., and the Philadelphia 
Chapter Black Alliance for Educational Options. She was a contributing 
author on School Choice: The Option of Success, The State of Black 
America 2001. She also was a Fellow of the 2001 Next Generation 
Leadership Program of the Rockefeller Foundation and served as an 
advisor for the Villanova University Law School Minority Advisor 
Society.
  She possessed all the attributes that we all admire in others. There 
was no limit to what she might have accomplished in this world and we 
are all worse off for her passing.
  Mr. Speaker, Deirdre Bailey's light was extinguished on July 6th, 
giving her just a little more than thirty years to light our lives. Her 
family, friends, colleagues and community will miss her very much. But, 
I ask my colleagues to join me in expressing the condolences of the 
House to her family. I hope that they find comfort in the knowledge 
that her time on Earth was well spent and that she left the world a 
better place than the one she found.

                          ____________________