[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 45 (Friday, April 2, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E529-E530]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING KENNY TABB FOR HEROIC RESCUE

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON LEWIS

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 2, 2004

  Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay long overdue 
public tribute to a remarkable individual from my home state of 
Kentucky. Kenny Tabb, Hardin County Court Clerk and longtime community 
leader in Elizabethtown, KY, was nominated 46 years ago for a Young 
American Bravery National Medal following his rescue of an 11-year-old 
boy drowning in a swimming pool. Mr. Tabb never received word 
concerning the status of the 1958 award or appropriate recognition for 
his heroism.
  On a summer day in 1958, Tabb, then 13, encountered a young mother 
screaming for help beside a hotel swimming pool. The woman's 11-year-
old son, who could not swim, was struggling in the eight foot deep 
water, twice sinking below water. A young Kenny Tabb instinctively 
jumped into the pool, fully clothed, saving the boy from a near 
drowning.
  On August 27, 1958, Representative Frank Chelf recommended to 
Attorney General William Rogers that a Young American Medal for Bravery 
be awarded to Kenny Tabb. The nomination was sent to a committee 
composed of F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover, the Attorney General and 
the Solicitor General. President Dwight Eisenhower later awarded two 
youth medals to earlier nominees and no Federal recognition was made to 
honor Tabb for his valor.
  Kenny Tabb demonstrated unusual courage and a selfless instinct to 
help others on that summer day in the prime of his youth. His action in 
saving a young life was an early indication of his character, qualities 
that have made

[[Page E530]]

him a brilliant public servant in the 46 years that have followed. 
Prior to his present post as clerk, Mr. Tabb served as Magistrate on 
the Hardin County Fiscal Court, as Assistant Principal at East Hardin 
High School and Principal at Sonora Elementary.
  Today, I would like to correct a four-decade old administrative 
oversight and finally recognize Mr. Tabb, before the entire U.S. House 
of Representatives, for his childhood heroism and for his dutiful 
service to the Elizabethtown, KY, community in the years since. His 
efforts, then and now, make him an outstanding American, worthy of our 
collective respect and honor.

                          ____________________