[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 31, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E488-E489]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO CURTIS WILLIAMS, SR.

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 31, 2004

  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, a few days ago, Curtis Williams, a great and 
patriotic American, passed away in Lenoir City, Tennessee.
  Mr. Williams, or Curtis to almost everyone, was a City Councilman in 
Lenoir City and a former member of the Loudon County Commission. He 
served on many boards and committees and worked with numerous civic and 
charitable organizations. He loved people and obviously wanted to help 
as many as he could.
  Curtis was not rich or famous, but much more importantly, he was a 
kind and good man. He loved his family first and his community and his 
Country next, and this shone through in everything he said and did.
  This Nation is a better place today because of the life Curtis 
Williams led, and I want to commend and praise the work he did.
  I want to also call to the attention of my colleagues and other 
readers of the Record the article about Curtis that was published by 
the Knoxville News Sentinel.

           [From the Knoxville News Sentinel, Mar. 31, 2004]

           Councilman's Death Leaves Big Hole in LC Community

                             (By Ann Hinch)

       Monday's presentation of a $215,000 FEMA grant at Lenoir 
     City Fire Station No. 1 promises all the hallmarks of an 
     event Curtis Williams Sr. would've loved: his little city and 
     his firefighters benefiting from much-needed federal funds, 
     politics and old friends.
       Sadly, the famously cheerful councilman will attend the 
     April 5 presentation only in memory. Williams, 77, died of 
     congestive heart failure at midnight March 15.
       He'd been absent from most of the semi-monthly council 
     meetings in the months preceding his death, wanting to attend 
     but ultimately too ill and tired to do so. He would have 
     especially enjoyed Monday's event, as he was also the city's 
     fire commissioner and helped snag the FEMA grant.
       ``He'd get ready to come to the meetings, but at the last 
     minute, he'd just be too tired,'' daughter Debbie Cook 
     explained.
       Cook, one of Williams' and wife Tiajaunia ``Ty's'' three 
     children, said her father's doctor told the family in January 
     that Williams didn't have long to live. In typical fashion, 
     rather than mourn his mortality, she said her father asked 
     frankly about funeral plans, regaled with old stories and 
     made the most of time with family during his last weeks.
       ``I remember telling him that last weekend, how when I was 
     growing up I remember him always helping the `little man,' `` 
     Cook recalled, adding with a laugh, ``and he answered, `Well, 
     I was the little man!'
       ``He saw himself as a true public servant. If someone 
     called him asking for help to get a job, or a place to live, 
     or food, he'd help them as much as he could.''
       Williams served on the city council from 1997 until his 
     death, but was hardly a political neophyte. He spent 11 years 
     on the Loudon County Commission until a heart attack forced 
     him to leave in 1980 and also retire from his job as 
     assistant plant manager with the local Charles H. Bacon Co. 
     textile plant.
       Taking a break from political office didn't mean a break in 
     politics. An avid Democrat all his life, Williams volunteered 
     for at least six boards, not including the committees he 
     chaired and served on during his 18 years of elected office. 
     And he even counted the occasional Republican among his 
     political comrades, including Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., and 
     his father, the late Rep. John J. Duncan.
       ``It seemed almost every time me or my dad came to Loudon 
     County, we would see him,'' recalled Duncan, whose father 
     began campaigning for office there while the younger Duncan 
     was in high school. ``He was a real strong supporter of both 
     of us.''
       ``I think that he set a good example for anyone in public 
     office. He had a heart for service and liked to help 
     people.''
       Duncan will make the grant presentation.
       Loudon County Attorney Harvey Sproul was county mayor while 
     Williams served on the commission. He recalls the projects 
     they worked on to modernize thle county, including being one 
     of the first Tennessee counties to institute planning and 
     zoning in 1972.
       ``He was supportive of trying to get things done and trying 
     to establish a foundation for future county growth,'' Sproul 
     said. ``He was almost unequaled in public service; he served 
     on so many boards, and was very progressive.''
       Duncan had the most contact with Williams through veterans' 
     organizations. Williams was proud of his three-year tour of 
     duty in the Navy during World War II; Cook said Williams was 
     proud to serve his country, to the point of having his legal 
     guardians (he and his siblings were orphaned young and lived 
     with relatives) help him lie about his age at 17 so he could 
     join the Navy in 1943.
       ``They didn't ask for anything (age proof) back then,'' 
     Cook said. ``They just said, `Do you want to fight?''' 
     Williams helped storm the beach at Normandy on D-Day and was 
     a gunner in the Pacific.
       After the war, Williams returned to his job at Bacon, where 
     he'd worked since he was a boy; he would work there 36 years. 
     He married his childhood sweetheart, earned his GED, and 
     attended classes at the University of Tennessee not toward a 
     degree, but simply to learn more. Two of his three children--
     Cook and Curtis Williams Jr.--followed him into local 
     politics (daughter Bernita Gamble did not). He left behind a 
     large family, including seven grandchildren and five great-
     grandchildren.
       He also left a hole on the city council, where his term 
     would have ended next April. Mayor Matt Brookshire, who is 
     now responsible for appointing the position, said, ``His 
     presence here was missed for a long time, and he'll continue 
     to be missed. He did enjoy (his work).''

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