[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 84 (Wednesday, June 22, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H4900]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IN MEMORY OF JAKE PICKLE

  (Mr. DeLAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DeLAY. What a good man he was, Mr. Speaker. What a friend, what a 
gentleman, what a servant. James Jarrell Pickle was born on October 11, 
1913, the son of a grocer and his schoolteacher wife, and died June 18, 
2005, a statesman of the first cut. He was in many ways the story of 
his country in the 20th century. Some of his earliest memories were of 
soldiers returning home from France, heroes back from winning the First 
World War. He witnessed the roaring twenties as a teenager and came of 
age--much like our Nation itself--during the Great Depression.
  After graduating from the University of Texas in an age when the 
country turned to Washington for help, Jake Pickle came to Washington 
to help. He became a congressional aide, and quickly put his heart and 
mind into service for his country. That commitment to public service, 
though, was not to be limited to desk work. He served honorably in the 
United States Navy as an officer aboard the USS Miami and St. Louis 
during the war in the Pacific.
  After the war, Pickle returned home to Texas to make his way in the 
world as a young entrepreneur, spending his postwar years, as so many 
of his countrymen did, earning his share of America's peace dividend. 
He returned again to Washington in 1963, this time as a young 
Congressman, the winner of a special election in Texas' 10th 
Congressional District.
  Representative Pickle learned early that the 1960s would give no 
quarter to half measures. Sides had to be chosen and stands had to be 
made. J.J. Pickle cast his first significant vote in this building in 
favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of only a handful of 
Southerners to do so. A Southerner in the days of Jim Crow, he feared 
the vote would destroy his young career. Instead, Mr. Speaker, that 
vote of conscience and courage came to define him. He served nobly in 
this body but never forgot he was a Texan serving in Washington, and 
not the other way around. His family and his constituents, Texans all, 
were his passion and he loved them all with the heart of a servant.
  It was in 1983, when he led the effort on the Ways and Means 
Committee to solve the short-term crisis facing Social Security, that 
Pickle reached the pinnacle of his congressional service. Over his 31 
years in Congress, Jake Pickle served millions of people in his Austin-
based district, and if he had his way, he would have gotten to know 
every last one of them. He was a good man, a good friend and a great 
Congressman. I think what may sum up his life and death is this: That 
as much as we will all miss his service to our Nation, he will still 
probably miss the opportunity to serve even more.

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