[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 154 (Friday, November 18, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2419]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO GAIL JOYCE BEAGLE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CHARLES A. GONZALEZ

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 18, 2005

  Mr. GONZALEZ. Mr. Speaker, my distinguished colleagues; it is a 
special honor that I pay tribute today to a great American and civil 
rights activist since the 1950's, Gail Joyce Beagle, who celebrates her 
70th birthday on November 25th.
  Gail, who I have known and counted as a friend for at least 46 years, 
had a long and distinguished career in appointive public service, but 
since her retirement, continues to work for the public good in a 
variety of capacities.
  Born in Beaumont, Texas on November 25, 1935, she was reared at 
Nederland on land her maternal grandfather, Martin Block, had earlier 
farmed for many years. Upon graduation from high school, she entered 
Texas Woman's University at Denton where she graduated with a 
bachelor's degree in journalism in 1958. At TWU she held various 
positions, including Day Editor, on the campus newspaper, the Daily 
Lass-O. Her academic standing in journalism resulted in her selection 
for membership in the honorary fraternity for women in journalism 
called Theta Sigma Phi (now called Association of Women in 
Communications). (At the turn of the last century women were not 
allowed in the then all-male journalism societies so it was necessary 
to establish a separate journalism fraternity for women--with its 
beginnings at the University of Washington at Seattle. )
  When Gail's journalism professors in 1957 told her she could not 
editorialize in the campus newspaper as to why TWU accepted young women 
as students from all over the world, but no black women were at the 
State institution of higher learning, she, in turn, posed this question 
in an editorial in the Methodist Student Movement's newsletter as to 
why there were no black women at TWU. During that time she was 
president of the Methodist college group for both TWU and North Texas 
State University.
  As the result of this effort, the TWU president and a few of his 
advisory committee faculty members were not happy with her, but she 
weathered the storm, and continued her integration effort. While 
working in 1959 for my father, the late Henry B. Gonzalez, then a State 
senator, who represented San Antonio at Austin, she got a nice telegram 
from a TWU history professor, congratulating her and telling her that 
TWU was to accept its first black female students in the fall of 1959.
  During the summer of 1957, she was a Texas Daily Newspaper 
Association intern on the San Antonio Light newspaper, but after 
college graduation, she did not immediately return to San Antonio, but 
landed her first job in Austin in late summer 1958. Earlier that 
summer, working out of her parents' home, she had a brief stint as 
Jefferson County volunteer campaign manager for my father's 
unsuccessful bid to be Governor of Texas.
  In the Fall of 1961, she returned to San Antonio as a permanent 
resident and campaigned in my father's bid to be the first Hispanic 
from Texas to be elected to Congress where he served in the House for 
37 years, and for the most part of those years, Gail served him and the 
20th Congressional District of Texas as the Chief of Staff and Press 
Secretary in Washington, returning home to San Antonio from time to 
time. Among many achievements for the people, as well as for my father, 
she was instrumental in his decision to be the first Member of 
Congress, south of the Mason Dixon line, to hire the first black 
congressional staff member. The staff member was the late Cora Faye 
Clayton, a graduate of Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, 
who served for 30 years, first in Washington and then in San Antonio, 
with honor and distinction. Additional milestones for Gail included 
completion of a Master of Arts degree in Legislative Affairs (MALA) 
from George Washington University.

  Earlier in Austin, Gail had served on the State Executive Committee 
of the Young Democrats of Texas and was involved in many civil rights 
demonstrations in 1959-61, including several at a University of Texas 
campus area movie house which would not sell tickets to blacks, even if 
they were students at UT. Further, the restaurants there would not 
serve blacks unless they had a UT student ID card. Gail says a State 
senator one time got out of his car, walked down the line observing the 
young demonstrators at the movie house, and then harassed them, as he 
walked away denouncing them, under his breath, as a ``bunch of 
communists.'' When Gail came to Washington with my father in late 1961, 
she, as well as other women, was denied membership in several 
organizations, including the Texas Breakfast Club, a Washington 
discussion group. It took years for those barriers for women to come 
down!
  Currently, Gail is president of the Henry B. Gonzalez Foundation for 
Inspiring Public Service which seeks to establish, at the downtown 
campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio, a center, named for 
my father, for Public Service, Integrity and Courage. She is also the 
Democratic chair for my precinct, and is active in many social, 
religious, and public service endeavors. For a few months she was the 
interim director of the Guadalupe Community Center that serves a poor 
neighborhood in my district.
  Gail, your record of service and achievements could fill a book. I 
congratulate you and wish you a happy and healthy 70th birthday, with 
many more to come!

                          ____________________