[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 136 (Friday, September 14, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1876]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 ELEANOR McGOVERN POST OFFICE BUILDING

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. LYNN C. WOOLSEY

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 10, 2007

  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my colleagues in 
honoring the life of Eleanor McGovern and in support of H.R. 2654, a 
bill to name a post office in South Dakota, in tribute to her legacy.
  Eleanor was a great advocate for children and families, both through 
volunteering and personally helping underprivileged families and by 
addressing these issues through public policy. Most people know her as 
the wife of Senator George McGovern--but she was an influential and 
outspoken figure in her own right. While her husband was running for 
president, she traveled across the country displaying her impressive 
rhetorical skills and changing traditional perceptions of a woman's 
role in public life.
  She was also a key advisor to her husband, one of our most 
distinguished American statesmen and humanitarians, and a very 
principled anti-war leader. Eleanor believed wholeheartedly in the 
causes they championed, in the battles they won and those they lost. 
She contributed her time and efforts to a number of organizations over 
the years, serving on the boards of directors for the Psychiatric 
Institute Foundation, the Child Study Association, the Erickson 
Institute of Chicago, and the Odyssey House of New York. Following her 
daughter's death, she also helped found the McGovern Family Foundation 
dedicated to research into alcoholism, and established the Martha 
Movement, which championed the rights of homemakers.
  I pay tribute to the legacy she leaves behind and the tremendous good 
work she did. She was truly a force for change. I'm so thankful for the 
life, the service, and the good will of Eleanor McGovern.

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