[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 72 (Thursday, June 8, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1079-E1080]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING CHARLOTTE MARIE PETERSON QUANN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. NANCY PELOSI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 8, 2006

  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a great civic 
and community advocate, Charlotte Marie Peterson Quann, who died on May 
17, 2006. I join my constituents in honoring her lifetime of service to 
San Francisco's most vulnerable and in recognizing her leadership as 
one of the earliest African American professional women.
  Charlotte called many places her home, but she devoted more than 
three decades of her life to improving the lives of those less 
fortunate in the San Francisco Bay Area. She served as the Chair of the 
Board for La Casa de Las Madres, an emergency shelter for battered 
women and their children, and as Chair of the Glide Church Board of 
Trustees in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. At Glide she 
ministered to the poor and infirm and took special delight in the 
children's programs. Charlotte was an active participant in the Cal-
Nevada United Methodist conference Board of Higher Education and Campus 
Ministry. When she died at age 72, she was the Chair of the Board of 
Center Point drug treatment programs and of the Mary Elizabeth Inn, a 
shelter for women in transition.
  Charlotte began her leadership activities early in life. In high 
school she joined numerous clubs where she ran for office. She 
graduated from the Detroit Public School System and graduated from 
Northwestern High School at age 16. She was active in the Urban League, 
YMCA speech and debate, and her photo is in Northwestern's Hall of 
fame. At age 16 she went to the U.S. Capitol and served as one of the 
first and youngest female Congressional pages. Her father, at whose 
side she learned, organizing Detroit's factory workers, inspired her 
political activism.
  In 1959, Charlotte became the first African American to work for 
Capital Airlines (the

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predecessor of United Airlines). She held many positions there and also 
served as President, Vice President, and Secretary of the United 
Airlines Black Professional Organization.
  Charlotte will be missed by all who cherished her warm smile and 
infectious humor and who were touched by her selfless leadership and 
advocacy. I extend my deepest sympathy to her sons, Steven and Warren, 
her daughter Carla, her grandson, Carl, her granddaughters Catherine, 
Sade, and Iman, her sisters Gloria Patton, Scheryl Peterson, and Gail 
Peterson, her brothers Willie Jr. and George Peterson, sisters-in-law 
and many nieces and nephews. Thank you for sharing Charlotte with us; 
her life was a gift to us all.

                          ____________________