[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 132 (Tuesday, October 18, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H8877-H8879]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WILLIE VAUGHN POST OFFICE

  Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 3853) to designate the facility of the United States Postal 
Service located at 208 South Main Street in Parkdale, Arkansas, as the 
Willie Vaughn Post Office.

[[Page H8878]]

  The Clerk read as follows:

                               H.R. 3853

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. WILLIE VAUGHN POST OFFICE.

       (a) Designation.--The facility of the United States Postal 
     Service located at 208 South Main Street in Parkdale, 
     Arkansas, shall be known and designated as the ``Willie 
     Vaughn Post Office''.
       (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
     document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
     facility referred to in subsection (a) shall be deemed to be 
     a reference to the ``Willie Vaughn Post Office''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Nevada (Mr. Porter) and the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter).


                             General Leave

  Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 3853.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Nevada?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in support of H.R. 3853, introduced by the distinguished 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross). This bill will designate this post 
office in Parkdale, Arkansas, as the Willie Vaughn Post Office 
Building.
  Willie Vaughn was born in 1904 in Thomasville, Alabama. He later 
moved to the State of Arkansas where he spent the better part of his 
life. Although Mr. Vaughn has little formal education, his dedication 
and perseverance in bettering his community earned him the undying 
respect and admiration of his peers. As a farmer who raised hogs, 
chickens, and cattle, he provided for his family, as well as anyone in 
need. He was always willing to lend a hand whether it be listening to 
and counseling members of the community or helping grieving friends 
plan funerals.
  Mr. Vaughn was active in his local church and held various positions 
within the congregation. As a delegate to the 1945 CME convention, he 
led the church from the Colored Methodist Church to the Christian 
Methodist Church. At 101 years of age, Willie Vaughn has experienced 
life-changing periods such as segregation, reconstruction, the stock 
market crash, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement, and much 
more. He is truly a man that has contributed to his community by his 
commitment to humanity and family and has become an icon in Parkdale, 
Arkansas. I urge all Members to come together and honor the life of 
this dedicated humanitarian.
  Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

                              {time}  1415

  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may 
consume to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross).
  Mr. ROSS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Chicago for 
yielding me this time.
  Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to support H.R. 
3853, legislation which would designate the postal facility in 
Parkdale, Arkansas, which is located in Arkansas' Fourth Congressional 
District, the ``Willie Vaughn Post Office.'' This bill has the 
unanimous support of the Parkdale City Council and its mayor, and I 
would like to personally thank them for their help with this: Mayor 
Glenda Wells, and to the City Council, Louis Mitchell, Mark Hawkins, 
Paula Files, and Evora Parker.
  Willie Vaughn, known to friends and family as ``Uncle Dude,'' spent 
most of his life giving back to this small town located near the Ashley 
and Chicot County line in southeast Arkansas, just a few miles north of 
Louisiana. Mr. Vaughn is an active member of his local church, helping 
not only to build the church but also serving in many leadership 
positions over the years.
  I can think of no person more deserving of this prestigious honor 
than Willie Vaughn. Mr. Vaughn embodies the definition of ``giving back 
to your community.'' At 101 years of age, Mr. Vaughn has spent a 
lifetime, or one might say over a century, working to improve Parkdale 
through dedication to the CME Church, as a civil rights leader working 
to remove racial barriers, lending an ear to friends and family 
throughout the community, throughout southeast Arkansas, and, yes, 
throughout America. He did so as a school bus driver, as a farmer, as a 
devoted husband and father. It is evident that Mr. Vaughn's commitment 
and dedication to his church, to civil justice, and to community 
service has made a lasting impact on the Parkdale community and its 
people.
  Willie Vaughn has served as a role model to many young people who 
grew up in this small town of 377 people, people like the gentleman 
from Illinois (Mr. Davis), who now resides in Chicago but grew up in 
Parkdale, people like the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis), who have 
gone on to do great things all across America because of the way their 
lives were shaped and influenced by Mr. Willie Vaughn.
  The Willie Vaughn Post Office will stand for decades and generations 
to come as a testament to Mr. Vaughn's life and the influence, the 
impact he has made on so many people from all across this great country 
that spent a little bit of time growing up in that southeast Arkansas 
community that we call the town of Parkdale.
  Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution to rename 
the U.S. Post Office in Parkdale, Arkansas the Willie Vaughn Post 
Office, and I want to first express my heartfelt appreciation to the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) for sponsoring this renaming 
legislation. I also want to thank the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. 
Berry), the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman), and the gentleman 
from Arkansas (Mr. Snyder) for their cosponsorships. It is also my 
pleasure to extend thanks to the honorable mayor and members of the 
Parkdale Arkansas City Council for their concurrence in the renaming of 
their town's post office: Ms. Glenda Wells, mayor; Louis Mitchell, 
alderman; Mark Hawkins, alderman; Paula Files, alderman; and Evora 
Parker, all whose families I knew and in some instances grew up with.
  Madam Speaker, I stand here this afternoon with a tremendous amount 
of pride in being able to participate in passing this legislation.
  First of all, I was born and grew up in Parkdale, Arkansas and lived 
there until I graduated from college. The man for whom we are renaming 
this post office, Mr. Willie Vaughn, whom we fondly called Uncle Dude 
and who is now 101 years old, was one of my primary mentors and role 
models and the most outstanding African American figure in that area 
for many years. Uncle Dude, who technically was not my uncle, he and my 
mother were stepbrothers, as they would be called, and sisters because 
their parents got married after his father's wife had died, and yet our 
families blended so close together until we were much closer than many 
blood relatives. As a matter of fact, as a result of the blending, my 
mother ended up with about 25 brothers and sisters.
  In addition, Uncle Dude and my father were close associates and the 
best of friends, and I spent many a Sunday afternoon in their home 
eating Aunt L.C.'s famous egg pies.
  Uncle Dude never had much formal education. My cousin Cora said that 
he finished the second grade, and yet he has always been one of the 
smartest and wisest persons that I have ever known. He had what we call 
a degree in CSTA; that is, common sense, talent, and ambition.
  Legend of Folklore has it that Willie as a little boy did not take 
kindly to farm work, did not practice it, and did not act as though he 
wanted to learn. Therefore, he was called ``Dude'' and it stuck. 
However, Mr. Vaughn became self-taught and in many ways self-educated. 
He could do almost anything on and off the farm. He, like most of his 
peers, was a sharecropper, but he also owned the molasses mill and made 
syrup. He was a tailor and measured me for my first tailored suit, 
which another uncle of mine sent to me from St. Louis when I was 
graduating from elementary school, and, I might add, it was one of the 
few tailored suits that I have ever owned.

[[Page H8879]]

  He was the chief lay person at our church, the Penny's Chapel CME 
Church, for more than 50 years, drove the school bus after we got one 
because we did not always have one, and was oftentimes the bridge 
between the black and white factions of the community in a small, rural 
southern town. Mr. Vaughn worked hard, acquired property, was a leading 
advocate for education, and commanded the respect of all segments of 
the town and of the area.
  Uncle Dude was the Sunday school superintendent at our church for 
decades, and I shall never forget that, as a teenager, he gave me the 
opportunity to teach Sunday school, which may have been the reason that 
I eventually became a schoolteacher. Even in our small semi-isolated 
town, and he and other adults expressed and conveyed a strong 
appreciation for education, and I remember my cousin Aubry graduating 
from high school as the only person in his class.
  As an avid church leader, Uncle Dude became a member of the general 
board of the CME Church and expressed great pride in the fact that he 
was able to vote to change the name from Colored Methodist Episcopal 
Church to Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
  He was born the son of former slaves. Mr. Willie Vaughn epitomizes 
progress that this country has made. He is indeed a living legend who 
is still alive, alert, and spiritually as well as intellectually 
engaged. I would not be surprised to find out that he is watching these 
proceedings on C-SPAN. And if he is, I say congratulations, Uncle Dude, 
on a life well spent, a Nation well served, a family well loved, and a 
faith in God well preserved.
  Madam Speaker, it is indeed with great pride that I urge passage of 
this bill and again thank the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) for 
introducing it.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I urge all Members to support the passage 
of H.R. 3853. I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the 
balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). The question is on the motion 
offered by the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter) that the House 
suspend the rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3853.
  The question was taken.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of 
those present have voted in the affirmative.
  Mr. PORTER. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be 
postponed.

                          ____________________