[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 10, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S786-S787]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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         RECOGNITION OF ANNIE LEE COONEY ON HER 100TH BIRTHDAY

 Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I rise today with the distinct 
privilege of recognizing one of St. Louis's most outstanding citizens, 
Mrs. Annie Lee Cooney on the occasion of her 100th birthday February 
25, 2004.
  Mrs. Cooney was born in Indianola, MS, as the third youngest of seven 
girls and two brothers. As the granddaughter of slaves and the daughter 
of active participants in the African-American community, Annie Lee was 
instilled at an early age with values and character that remain strong 
to this day. Her parents, Indiana and Oliver Jarman were active in the 
African-American community in her home town. Her father, Oliver Jarman, 
was a high ranking official in the Prince Hall Masons in Mississippi 
and was also instrumental in founding a Penny Bank in Greenville, MS.
  In 1922, after attending the Tuskeegee Institute, in Tuskeegee, AL, 
Annie Lee moved to St. Louis to live with her sister and helped with 
her new baby. But it was in St. Louis where Annie Lee's life changed 
when she met and fell in love with Roy Cooney. The young couple were 
married in 1924 and Roy and Annie Lee Cooney soon became the loving 
parents to thirteen children--seven girls and six boys, all of whom 
went on to attend college.
  Mrs. Cooney has been very active in the Black Catholic Community in 
St. Louis since the early 1930s. Some of Mrs. Cooney's professional 
achievements include being named President of the Sisters of the 
Blessed Sacrament alumni in the 1960s and Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority 
Mother of the Year in 1980. Mrs. Cooney has been an active member of 
the National Council of Negro Women, the Council of Catholic Women, the 
Legion of Mary, the Catholic Knights of America, the Cairo Social Club, 
charitable works and scholarships to Black youth, and the Seminarians 
Club, spiritual and financial

[[Page S787]]

aid to Black Catholic Seminarians. She was also a member of the Cook 
Avenue Block Unit Association, and a strong force in her neighborhood--
with her home often serving as a gathering place for youth and young 
adults. Perhaps Mrs. Cooney's greatest display of goodwill was in her 
frequent visits to Homer G. Phillips Hospital with the Helpers of the 
Holy Souls. For over forty years Mrs. Cooney visited the sick and 
hospitalized and would provide them with candy, toiletries, and prayer.
  Mrs. Cooney has traveled the world extensively, and has brought 
goodwill to wherever she has been. She has remained true to her motto: 
``If I can help somebody as I travel on, then my living will not be in 
vain.'' On behalf of the people of St. Louis and the State of Missouri, 
I extend my most sincere gratitude to Mrs. Annie Lee Cooney for her 
years of dedicated community service and the goodwill. I wish her all 
the best on this most important occasion, her one-hundredth 
birthday.

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