[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 123 (Monday, October 4, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1793]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TRIBUTE TO WESLEY AND ELLA MAE ROOKS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. MARION BERRY

                              of arkansas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 4, 2004

  Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Wesley and 
Ella Mae Rooks. They are a very special couple who have given so much 
to the community they adopted over forty years ago. Wesley came to 
Gillett, Arkansas, as a math teacher, and Ella Mae found a job in a 
neighboring town as a secretary. Eventually, Ella Mae was employed as a 
secretary to the principal at Gillett High School where Wesley was 
teaching.
  Mr. Speaker, there is no way to adequately measure the positive 
influence Wesley and Ella Mae had on the young people of Gillett in 
their years at Gillett High School. I personally know from my own 
children's experience how they valued every child and encouraged them 
in their class work and in life beyond the classroom. They were 
demanding of a child's best, expected it, and did so with a large dose 
of good humor. Young people knew the Rooks were rooting for them to 
succeed.
  Their retirement has given them other outlets to find ways of 
encouraging others. Whatever need presents itself, they respond.
  So on behalf of the U.S. Congress, I take this opportunity to wish 
Wesley my congratulations on his 80th birthday, and he and Ella Mae are 
both congratulated on being loved and appreciated by a host of friends 
and relatives. They are the essence of what makes America great. I am 
indeed blessed to have them as my friends and neighbors.

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