[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 22 (Wednesday, February 4, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E212-E213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    MOURNING THE DEATH OF FORMER SENATOR JAMES B. PEARSON OF KANSAS

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DENNIS MOORE

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 4, 2009

  Mr. MOORE of Kansas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to note the death of 
former Kansas United States Senator James B. Pearson, who died on 
January 13th at the age of 88.
  Appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1962, upon the death of Andrew 
Schoeppel, James B. Pearson served our state with distinction from 1962 
through 1978. Elected in 1962, and re-elected in 1966 and 1972, Senator 
Pearson was a workhorse, not a showhorse. A senior member of the 
Foreign Relations Committee, he also rose to become Ranking Republican 
member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. Senator 
Pearson represented our state during an important and turbulent era, 
addressing issues that included: the Vietnam War; the civil rights 
revolution; enactment of the Medicare and Medicaid programs; America's 
space exploration program; and deregulation of the trucking and airline 
industries. Senator Pearson was a voice of reason and common sense 
during these difficult times and I am proud that he was originally from 
Prairie Village, which is located in the Third Congressional District 
of Kansas. In 2003, I joined with the rest of the Kansas congressional 
delegation in authoring legislation naming the Prairie Village U.S. 
post office in his honor.
  Madam Speaker, the website for the Topeka Capital-Journal newspaper 
recently carried a blog commentary regarding Senator Pearson's career, 
which I believe very accurately summarizes his service to Kansas 
throughout his public life. I ask that it be included with this 
statement, as well as the obituary article regarding Senator Pearson 
that was published in the Washington Post.

            [From the Topeka Capital Journal, Jan. 29, 2009]

     Mellinger: Pearson's political story is one worth remembering

                          (By Gwyn Mellinger)

       Without fanfare, Jim Pearson, one of Kansas' most complex 
     politicians, died earlier

[[Page E213]]

     this month. Most of the state's news media marked his passing 
     with only perfunctory notices, hardly a fitting testament to 
     his contributions during 17 years in the U.S. Senate and 
     another decade in various other public offices.
       This is what happens when you live to be 88 and choose to 
     spend the last decades of your life in relative obscurity. In 
     retirement, Pearson split his time between homes in Baldwin 
     City and Gloucester, Mass. As health problems prevented 
     travel, his visits to Kansas became fewer. Even so, he 
     remained invested in the state whose voters sent him off to 
     Washington and were sometimes bewildered by him.
       Pearson never lost the drawl that betrayed his upbringing 
     in Tennessee and Virginia, as well as his education at Duke 
     University and the University of Virginia School of Law. As 
     an outsider, he launched his Kansas political career from a 
     law practice in Johnson County, where he was a city attorney 
     and probate judge before serving a term in the Kansas Senate.
       He was state Republican chairman in 1962, when Gov. John 
     Anderson appointed him to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated 
     by the death of Andy Schoeppel. Later that year, Pearson 
     secured the position in a special election and was re-elected 
     in both 1966 and 1972. When he didn't seek reelection in 
     1978, he was succeeded by Nancy Kassebaum.
       With benefit of hindsight, Pearson's political record seems 
     particularly astonishing. When Pearson ran for statewide 
     office, his brief history in Kansas was in Johnson County. 
     Even so, Pearson was able to win re-election to the Senate in 
     a state whose population was then more rural, more provincial 
     and less concentrated in the east.
       Moreover, Kansans re-elected Pearson after he took a 
     decidedly liberal turn. Although Pearson generally voted with 
     his party at the beginning of his Senate career, he broke 
     with the Nixon administration by opposing the bombing of Laos 
     and Cambodia. Pearson also attended meetings of the Wednesday 
     Club, a lunch group of liberal and moderate Republican 
     senators.
       When Bobby Kennedy, Pearson's UVa classmate, made a 
     presidential campaign swing through Kansas, Pearson 
     introduced him in Lawrence and Manhattan. In his remarks 
     Pearson wished Kennedy continued success in the Senate, but 
     the joint appearance was a politically incendiary move for a 
     Kansas Republican.
       Pearson answered voters' concerns about ideology by 
     advancing constituent services, rural development and the 
     interests of the aviation, livestock, and oil and gas 
     industries.
       A Republican politician with Pearson's independent spirit 
     would have difficulty being elected today. Nor are there many 
     who simply retire and forsake the limelight, as Pearson did.
       His is an example worth remembering.

               [From the Washington Post, Jan. 19, 2009]

              Progressive Republican Was a Kansas Senator

                            (By Joe Holley)

       James B. Pearson, 88, a progressive Republican who 
     represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate for almost 17 years, 
     died Jan. 13 at his home in Gloucester, Mass. A cause of 
     death wasn't immediately available, although Sen. Pearson had 
     been on kidney dialysis for the past four years, said his 
     wife, Margaret Pearson.
       Sen. Pearson championed deregulating natural gas, expanding 
     international trade and reforming campaign finance, among 
     other issues that often found him voting with his Democratic 
     colleagues. With then-Sen. Walter F. Mondale (D-Minn.), he 
     sponsored legislation that reduced the number of votes 
     required to end a filibuster from 67 to 60. He also broke 
     with the Nixon administration on efforts to end the Vietnam 
     War. His closest Senate colleagues were Republicans Sens. 
     Charles ``Mac'' Mathias (Md.) and Edward Brooke (Mass.) and 
     Democrat John Culver (Iowa).
       David Seaton, the senator's former press secretary and now 
     publisher of the Winfield Daily Courier, said Sen. Pearson's 
     toughest races were always in the Republican primaries: ``For 
     a good long time, he was not considered Republican enough by 
     the traditional Republican party people.''
       James Blackwood Pearson was born in Nashville but moved 
     with his family as a child to the Charlottesville area, where 
     his father was a Methodist preacher. He spent two years as an 
     undergraduate at Duke University before becoming a Navy 
     transport pilot during World War II. From 1943 to 1946, he 
     was stationed at Olathe Naval Air Station in Kansas. He 
     returned to Kansas after receiving his law degree in 1950 
     from the University of Virginia.
       He married a Kansas woman after the war and practiced law 
     in Johnson County, Kan., during the 1950s. He also served as 
     city attorney for several Kansas towns, as assistant county 
     attorney and as a county probate judge.
       After serving a single term in the Kansas Senate, starting 
     in 1956, he returned to his private law practice. He also 
     served as the Republican state chairman.
       In January 1962, Republican Sen. Andrew Schoeppel died in 
     office, and Kansas Gov. John Anderson, Jr. appointed Sen. 
     Pearson to fill the vacancy. He won the GOP primary that year 
     with 62 percent of the vote over former governor Ed Arn, then 
     won the general election with 56 percent. He won a full six-
     year term in 1966 and another in 1972.
       As a senator, he was a member of the Appropriations and 
     Commerce committees and served on the Foreign Relations 
     Committee in the 1970s as the United States sought to end the 
     Vietnam War.
       Seaton noted that Kansas Republicans who supported Sen. 
     Pearson ``really did support most of the Great Society and 
     turned against the Vietnam War fairly early.'' The senator 
     became an opponent after the 1970 bombing of Cambodia.
       Sen. Pearson decided not to seek reelection in 1978 and was 
     succeeded by Nancy Kassebaum Baker. He practiced law irk the 
     Washington office of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Lieby and MacRae and 
     served on the board of the Honolulu-based East-West 
     Institute. He spent the last few years of his life in 
     Gloucester and also had a farm in Baldwin City, Kan.
       His marriage to Martha Mitchell Pearson ended in divorce.
       Survivors include his wife of 28 years, of Gloucester and 
     Baldwin City; and four children from the first marriage.

                          ____________________