[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 61 (Wednesday, May 5, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H2627-H2628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       IN MEMORY OF MARY McGRORY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, first of all I want to thank the 
gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter) for urging many of us to come 
to the floor today to say a few words about Mary McGrory, who passed 
away 2 weeks ago.
  Mr. Speaker, like countless people in this country and around the 
world, I loved Mary McGrory. She was an absolutely beautiful writer, 
and she was an absolutely beautiful person. To me, she was a treasured 
and dear friend. Mary's columns, which first appeared in the Washington 
Star and then in The Washington Post, were always well written and 
always right to the point.

[[Page H2628]]

She took on such subjects as Joe McCarthy, the war in Vietnam, Richard 
Nixon, and U.S. policy in Central America. And while she was an 
unabashed liberal and proud of it, many of her admirers included some 
of the most conservative politicians in America, in large part because 
they admired her integrity and her character. She called it as she saw 
it.
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. McGOVERN. I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. DREIER. I thank my friend for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to join and commend him and commend our 
Rules Committee colleague, the gentlewoman from New York, for focusing 
on the life of Mary McGrory. I think that the gentleman may have been 
referring to me with what he just said because I am a proud Republican 
who often, in fact I rarely agreed with Mary McGrory. But the fact of 
the matter is she was an incredible writer, an extraordinary human 
being, and very talented. I had many vigorous exchanges with her on a 
wide range of issues. Believe it or not, we did on more than a couple 
of occasions come down on the same side on an issue. She was 
thoughtful, she was dedicated, and she was very capable.
  I just want to thank my friend and join as one of those Republicans 
who did have a great admiration for this great woman. I thank the 
gentleman for yielding and again thank the gentlewoman from New York.
  Mr. McGOVERN. I appreciate the gentleman's words.
  Mr. Speaker, I would also remind those who are watching that her 
words that appeared in the Washington Star after the assassination of 
President Kennedy are still remembered and are still quoted today and 
are incredibly moving. She was also a rarity in that when she felt she 
was wrong, she said so. I remember that she was less than thrilled when 
President Bill Clinton gave Gerry Adams a visa to come to the United 
States to engage in talks about peace in Northern Ireland. It was a big 
deal to many of us who thought President Clinton was right because when 
you think of Irish, you think of Mary McGrory, and it was important to 
have her on your side. But later on Mary demonstrated the courage and 
the moral compass to publicly observe that her original words of 
skepticism might have been wrong. I admired that so much that she was 
willing to write in her column that she had a change of heart.
  Over the years, Mr. Speaker, I had the privilege of being invited to 
many of Mary's famous dinner parties. These remarkable events were 
attended by who's who in Washington. There were politicians, 
journalists, administration officials. Oftentimes the Ambassadors of 
Ireland, Italy, and India were present. There were young people and 
some not-so-young people, and there were lots of people whom Mary just 
found interesting, friends of hers over the years. The conversations 
were always lively and off the record. I learned a lot about Washington 
and the world just by sitting back and listening.
  These dinner parties, however, were about more than just politics and 
good conversation. They were parties that were also about entertainment 
and about fun. Mary liked to have people sing for their supper. Mark 
Gearan, a long-time aide to President Bill Clinton, former director of 
the Peace Corps and now president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges 
in Geneva, New York, was regularly enlisted to play the piano. Phil 
Gailey, a former coworker of Mary's at her beloved Washington Star and 
now with the St. Petersburg Times, would play some sort of harp 
instrument that to this day I still cannot identify.
  Some of Mary's guests, like Louise Slaughter and Tom Daschle and John 
Podesta and Dick Gephardt and Ed Markey and Max Cleland and Mary Gearan 
and Nancy Pelosi, the late Tip O'Neill and my former boss, the late Joe 
Moakley, were often called upon to sing from Mary's song book. Some of 
her favorites included ``Amazing Grace'' and ``The Battle Hymn of the 
Republic'' and ``When Irish Eyes Are Smiling.'' Other people were asked 
to tell jokes or recite poetry. And then there were people like me with 
absolutely no talent who would hide in the back of the room, I was 
always afraid she would call on me, and watch this amazing show unfold.
  Mary also did a great deal for this community. She was a huge 
supporter of St. Ann's Infant and Maternity Home in Hyattsville, 
Maryland. She volunteered there. She read to a lot of young kids, many 
of them who had no families. She gave them love, and she gave them 
hope. She used to take them to Hickory Hill, to Ethyl Kennedy's house, 
for swimming on a regular basis. A lot of the young kids could not 
pronounce her name, so they used to call her Mary Gloria instead of 
Mary McGrory. In fact they named a room after her called the Mary 
Gloria Room.
  Mr. Speaker, let me just conclude with one final personal thought. 
When Mary died, she left instructions about how her funeral would be 
conducted. Her assistant Tina called me and said that Mary wanted me to 
be a pallbearer. I was so touched, and I thought it was such a great 
honor. It was to me an honor like getting an honorary degree from an 
Ivy League college or university because I admired this woman so much. 
She stood for all the right things, and she was a great woman of 
integrity and character.
  Mr. Speaker, all of us who are gathered here today and I think all 
the people who are watching all throughout this country will miss Mary 
McGrory. I already do.

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