[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 175 (Monday, December 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E2467]]
               IN RECOGNITION OF CHARLOTTE THOMPSON REID

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. J. DENNIS HASTERT

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, December 8, 2003

  Mr. HASTERT. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend to the attention of our 
colleagues the recent celebration of one of our former colleague's 90th 
birthday this past September 27. Charlotte Thompson Reid, one of my 
predecessors who served in the House from January 1963-October 1971, 
has been known as the ``Grand Lady of Aurora, Illinois,'' the largest 
city in my congressional district. Charlotte Reid has always been an 
inspiration to those of us who have known her. Her sparkling 
personality and just plain Midwest-friendliness is renown throughout 
all of Chicagoland. Her conscientious service in Congress overlapped 
with the beginning of my teaching career in Yorkville, Illinois and her 
outstanding record helped inspire me to seek public office in the late 
1970's. In fact, her daughter, Patricia, is currently a State 
Representative in the Illinois General Assembly.
  While in Congress, Charlotte served on the Appropriations, Interior 
and Insular Affairs, Public Works, and Ethics Committees. In 1971, she 
was appointed to be a Commissioner on the FCC where she served with 
distinction until retiring in 1976. She was a member of the President's 
Task Force on International Private Enterprise from 1983 to 1985, and 
has been a member of the Hoover Institution's Board of Overseers since 
1984. She is a resident today of Aurora.
  One last anecdote. Not only was Charlotte Reid herself elected to 
Congress five times with overwhelming margins, but her enthusiastic 
support and endorsement helped to elect two future Congressmen--another 
of my predecessors Tom Corcoran in 1976 and her work on my behalf 
helped elect me ten years later in 1986, during my first and toughest 
campaign for Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, we are all indebted to Charlotte Reid for her energy, 
her gentle manner and her zest for life. On behalf of us all, I wish 
her a belated, but happy 90th birthday and many more to come.

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