[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 122 (Thursday, August 6, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8987-S8989]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               REMEMBERING REBECCA JANE DALTON WEINBERGER

 Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute to a 
great fellow Mainer and a wonderful friend who passed away recently--
Rebecca Jane Dalton Weinberger. Today, I would like to take a few 
moments to offer a few reflections of my own on Jane's life, as well as 
include some of the thoughts that her exceptional son, Caspar 
Weinberger, Jr., has shared regarding his beloved mother--and I will 
ask that Mr. Weinberger's statements upon Jane's passing be printed in 
the Record in their entirety.
  Born in Milford, ME, Jane was a notable figure in our State. A writer 
and publisher of outstanding children's stories, a tireless community 
volunteer, a woman who in 1942 met--on a troop ship bound for 
Australia--a man then referred to as U.S. Army CAPT Caspar W. 
Weinberger, who would become her husband for 63 years not to mention 
Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan!--and above all, an 
extraordinary mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother Jane 
Weinberger was truly beloved by many and will be profoundly missed by 
all of us who were fortunate to know her.
  Inseparable throughout their 63 years of marriage, Jane and Caspar 
are indisputably now reunited--together once again--their rightful 
state of being given all that they meant to each other not only in love 
but in life, and all of its trials and triumphs. Jane and Cap were 
passionately devoted to one another--each drawing strength and 
inspiration from the other's indomitable spirit. In fact, her son tells 
of how, and I quote, ``it was my mother who . . . almost literally 
pushed him into his first political campaign as the Republican 
candidate for the State Assembly from San Francisco's 21st Assembly 
District . . . she did all the campaign things: running the campaign 
office, calling on potential voters, handing out bumper stickers and 
posters. Jane was a great organizer, and innovator.'' And, I would add 
that they both served as each other's closest confidante and friend--as 
well as being husband and wife.
  And it was Jane who did Caspar the tremendous favor of introducing 
him to the great State of Maine. Of course, since Jane was a native 
Mainer through-and-through, as I mentioned at the memorial service for 
Cap Weinberger in 2006, many back home still referred to him as 
``Jane's husband!'' After all, as anyone familiar with Maine 
understands, you can never get ``top billing'' unless you were actually 
born there--even if you were pivotal in the downfall of the Soviet 
Union and the end of the Cold War!
  And Jane was a force of nature in her own right. In the words of 
Caspar Weinberger, Jr., ``My mother . . . helped her family hold 
together and prosper often under the most trying conditions that can 
only be truly understood by those who achieve fame and the scrutiny 
which go with holding high office in America. She was down to earth and 
sensible, and she was also a woman of great dignity, beauty and courage 
. . . She was instrumental in helping her husband win elective office . 
. . and later (was) a well-known and admired Washington, DC hostess, 
while Cap was serving in cabinet positions to three different U.S. 
presidents throughout the 1970's and 80's.''
  Jane was not only unfailingly dedicated to her family--raising her 
sons, Caspar and Arlin--but also to her community and the world around 
her. Again, to quote Mr. Weinberger, she was ``certainly civically 
minded--she was a volunteer in many an organization for the poor and 
needy.'' She ``volunteered for many civic duties and charities and 
writing children's stories,'' and was a former chairwoman of the Folger 
Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC; served on the board of Amherst 
College in Massachusetts; and for many years served on the Board at 
Jackson Laboratories in Bar Harbor. As Cap Weinberger, Jr. wrote, she 
believed ``that it was most important to contribute to their good 
efforts in attempting to defeat cancer in every form once and for 
all.''
  Once the Weinbergers had arrived back in Maine after their years in 
Washington, Jane also started a publishing business she had long 
envisioned, which was chiefly focused on children's books and which she 
ran for more than 20 years with more then 120 titles. And her company 
came to be acknowledged, as her son put it, as ``not the biggest but 
among the very best.''
  On a more personal note, certainly, my husband Jock McKernan--Maine's 
former Governor--and I have deeply treasured our friendship with Jane 
and Cap. Every time we drive by the home they cherished on Somes Sound, 
called ``Windswept House'' in Mount Desert, ME, I am reminded of the 
80th birthday party that Jane threw for Cap. And what a wonderful night 
that was--under the stars of a spectacular Maine summer sky--with 
Secretary Colin Powell and so many others joining in the festivities 
and the laughter. In Caspar Weinberger, Jr.'s words.

       She arranged for a startling and magnificent round of 
     fireworks in his honor. Strangely, twelve years later on the 
     night before her passing, my wife and I witnessed another 
     stunning display of fireworks put on just across the inlet to 
     Somes Sound by a neighbor celebrating a wedding or other 
     special event. While these lights were not really designed in 
     her honor, to us it was highly symbolic, as if her time of 
     respect had come and was recognized. In my view, as well it 
     should have been, for she was most definitely the power that 
     guided my father to the heights of American government.

  Mr. President, Jane Weinberger achieved her own formidable heights 
throughout her remarkable lifetime, and we have truly lost a leading 
light in Maine. My profound sympathies go out to Caspar and Arlin as 
well as Jane's sister, Virginia, and her three grandchildren and five 
great-grandchildren at this most difficult of times. Jane will always 
be in the hearts of those whose lives she touched so deeply.
  Mr. President, I ask to have printed in the Record Mr. Weinberger's 
statements to which I referred.
  The information follows:

                 Mrs. Caspar W. (Jane) Weinberger Dies

       Jane Dalton Weinberger, 91, wife of former President Ronald 
     Reagan's Secretary of Defense, the late Caspar W. Weinberger, 
     died last night, July 12, 2009 in Bar Harbor, Maine. For the 
     last six months, she had been in declining health and was 
     living in a nursing home near her home known as ``Windswept 
     House'' in Somesville, Maine on Mount Desert Island.
       Born Rebecca Jane Dalton in Milford, Maine, on March 29, 
     1918, Mrs. Weinberger became an Army nurse at the outbreak of 
     World War II. While aboard a troop ship headed to Australia 
     in 1942, she met her husband-to-be, U.S. Army Captain Caspar 
     W.

[[Page S8988]]

     Weinberger. They were married in Sydney and remained together 
     for 63 years until Caspar's death in late March, 2006.
       While Cap (as Caspar was widely known) pursued a career 
     first as a San Francisco, California lawyer and then a public 
     statesman, Jane dedicated herself to raising a family, 
     volunteering for many civic duties and charities and writing 
     children's stories. She was instrumental in helping her 
     husband win elective office as a California assemblyman in 
     the 1950's and later as a well-known and admired Washington, 
     D.C. hostess, while Cap was serving in cabinet positions to 
     three different U.S. presidents throughout the 1970's and 
     80's.
       She was a former chairwoman of the Folger Shakespeare 
     Library in Washington and served also on the boards of 
     Amherst College in Massachusetts and the Jackson Laboratory 
     in Bar Harbor, ME. In her early years she was a volunteer at 
     St. Luke's Hospital in the San Francisco Bay Area, and a 
     member of that city's venerable Century Club.
       After leaving government service in 1987, Cap and Jane 
     retired to their summer home, Windswept House in Mt. Desert, 
     ME. Cap went on to be the Publisher of Forbes Magazine and 
     then became Chairman of the Forbes Group. Jane started and 
     operated her own book publishing house, Windswept House 
     Publishers, for the next twenty years, producing over 100 
     titles of mostly children's books.
       Jane and Caspar had two children: daughter Arlin 
     Weinberger, now residing in Marin County, California and son 
     Caspar Jr., presently residing with his wife in Mt. Desert, 
     ME. Jane also leaves her sister, Virginia Garceau of Brewer, 
     ME, daughter-in-law Mavis, three grandchildren, Louise 
     Murray, James Weinberger, Rebecca Werber, and five great 
     grandsons.
       ``My mother was a wonderful woman who helped her family 
     hold together and prosper often under the most trying 
     conditions that can only be truly understood by those who 
     achieve fame and the scrutiny which go with holding high 
     office in America. She was down-to-earth and sensible, and 
     she was also a woman of great dignity, beauty and courage. 
     She was a wonderful hostess, gave great parties and donated 
     much of her time to helping others in San Francisco, 
     Washington, D.C. and Maine. She was always a loving wife to 
     her husband before his passing in 2006. All of her family 
     will miss her very much, but are glad that she has finally 
     reached a lasting peace,'' her son Caspar Weinberger, Jr. 
     said today.
       In line with her wishes, there will be no formal services 
     for Jane; her ashes will be scattered on the gardens she 
     loved and tended at her Windswept House. The family asks that 
     in lieu of flowers and cards, donations be made to the 
     Weinberger Foundation, the family non-profit organization, at 
     P.O. Box 860, Mt. Desert, ME 04660.
                                  ____


               Rebecca Jane Dalton Weinberger (1918-2009)

       Dear Editor, I write this letter today with a heavy heart, 
     but also with a sense of pride and certain knowledge that now 
     the journey of my dear parents is finally complete. Rebecca 
     Jane Dalton Weinberger, wife of the late great American 
     statesman, and my father, Caspar W. Weinberger, died late 
     last night, Sunday July 12, at Sonogee Nursing Home in Bar 
     Harbor. The cause was a massive stroke coupled with extreme 
     old age.
       First and foremost, she was my mother. For all my life, I 
     was close to her and we felt a camaraderie shared by being in 
     the orbit, as well as in the shadow, of a highly famous man. 
     Rebecca Jane Dalton Weinberger was a very strong and yet a 
     most down-to-earth lady of Maine. She was born in Milford, 
     near Old Town, on March 29, 1918. Although she was not into 
     astrology, I am, and believe me my mother was definitely an 
     Aries through and through. By which I mean she was of a fiery 
     temperament, extremely sure of herself, of what was right and 
     what was wrong, but also innovative in spirit and in 
     practice. Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac, symbolizing 
     the initial spark of light and fire. Jane was a good mother, 
     a fine cook, and certainly civically minded: she was a 
     volunteer in many an organization for the poor and needy.
       What is it with these special New England genetics that 
     seem to breed so many naturally long-living Maine people? I 
     don't really know; perhaps it is just a real love of life 
     regardless of its pain or pleasure, of which my mother surely 
     knew both. Jane was a gardener but that was the limit of her 
     outdoor exercise. She did enjoy swimming, but hardly on any 
     regular body-building schedule. She drank a lot of wine, and 
     heavier spirits when she was younger, although she always 
     controlled herself with not even a suspicion of intoxication, 
     although I am sure on many occasions she was happily drunk. 
     Nevertheless, she still managed always to look elegant and at 
     ease even under the worst of circumstances and she lived to 
     be over ninety-one years old. Given all that she went through 
     in Cap's last years of suffering (he was on dialysis for 
     three years) especially at his passing in the spring of 2006, 
     it is amazing that she still had most of her wits until the 
     very end. She out-lived her husband by three years and she 
     was a great lady to be around.
       From what I know of her early history, my mother found 
     herself born into a quasi-indigent and somewhat dysfunctional 
     family--her father simply left home one day when she was 
     about eight years old and never came back. But Jane did not 
     quit. By early adulthood she had a nursing degree from the 
     Summerville Nursing Academy and World War II was calling for 
     her services. She was sworn in as a Second Lieutenant U.S. 
     Army nurse in 1941 and soon was transferred to the Pacific 
     theater. On her way aboard a ship to care for soldiers in 
     Australia, she met her life-mate. She told me the story once 
     of how a girl friend had said ``Oh, you married some 
     soldier,'' to which my mother responded ``Yes, some 
     soldier!''
       And, indeed Army Lieutenant, soon to be Captain Caspar 
     ``Cap'' Weinberger was that and more. A lifetime public 
     servant, he was a California assemblyman who went on to serve 
     in many U.S. cabinet posts and eventually became President 
     Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense. Cap and Jane married in 
     Australia in 1942. My sister arrived first in 1943, while I 
     waited until 1947. Through circumstance--once married and 
     pregnant, Jane was sent by the Army, per regulations, back to 
     the States--my sister, Arlin, was born in Old Town, Maine, 
     while I became a child, like my father, of the West Coast, a 
     native San Franciscan. Actually, we lived first in Sausalito, 
     California, across the Bay from San Francisco. In 1949, we 
     moved to the city, living in what is now known as the Pacific 
     Heights neighborhood. My father was a law clerk in the city 
     and then eventually a young lawyer in a corporate law firm.
       My father was generally shy and not very forthcoming in 
     those days, but he was also bored with the law. In High 
     School he had been fascinated by the U.S. Congressional 
     Record, and the daily transcript of Congress in action. 
     Today, he would have been known as a ``wonk,'' a bookish and 
     slightly withdrawn man. Nevertheless, he had served as 
     Student Body President at San Francisco's Polytechnic High, 
     located right next to the old Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate 
     Park. Then he had gone on to Harvard and the Harvard Law 
     School. Yet, it was my mother who warmed him up to, and then 
     almost literally pushed him into his first political campaign 
     as the Republican candidate for the State Assembly from San 
     Francisco's 21st Assembly District. It was victorious and he 
     served three consecutive two-year terms.
       She did all the campaign things: running the campaign 
     office, calling on potential voters, handing out bumper 
     stickers and posters. Jane was a great organizer, and 
     innovator. She could make stuff out of nothing, and she was a 
     good writer as well. She was regularly published in the 
     smaller publications of the day and one of her stories was 
     called ``Lemon Drop,'' about an elephant, as I recall, and it 
     was republished many times while winning many awards.
       In my elementary and high school days in California, Jane 
     was always active with volunteer groups, especially the St. 
     Luke's Hospital Auxiliary. She was a member of the Century 
     Club of San Francisco. I often drove her to meetings at the 
     Club's lovely mansion near the California Street Cable Car 
     line.
       Well, boys miss their mothers. I am no longer a boy, of 
     course, although inside I still feel like one, but I shall 
     always feel for my mother and all she went through in the 
     world of politics and government. It was a great journey, 
     with lots of excitement, many highs, but also many lows. Such 
     is the nature of most lives, but my parents' existences were 
     perhaps grander, perhaps more intense than most.
       Jane became the Chairwoman of the Folger Library, the great 
     Shakespeare monument and treasure trove of things English, in 
     Washington, D.C. She hosted so many fine parties for pretty 
     much the entire nation's ``A-list'' of actors, politicians, 
     scientists, professors, etc. and I was happy to be in 
     attendance at many of these events, with my lovely wife of 
     many years, Mavis. We met many of the world's most 
     recognizable characters simply because of my parent's 
     associations and as such we were most privileged indeed.
       When she left Washington, moving with Cap back to Maine, 
     Jane started a business she had dreamed of running all her 
     life: Windswept House Publishers, a largely children's book 
     publishing house which she ran for over twenty years right 
     from her own home in Somesville on MDI. With over 120 titles, 
     her little company became recognized throughout New England 
     as ``not the biggest but among the very best,'' as more than 
     one reviewer attested.
       For many years, Jane served on the Board at the Jackson Lab 
     in Bar Harbor believing that it was most important to 
     contribute to their good efforts in attempting to defeat 
     cancer in every form once and for all. Today, the Weinberger 
     Foundation which I started when Cap died continues to 
     contribute to the Lab in the hope that the goal Jane and so 
     many others dreamed about may one day be reached.
       On Cap's 80th birthday, August 18, 1997, Jane hosted a 
     major celebration at Windswept. Many dignitaries, friends and 
     family attended. She arranged for a startling and magnificent 
     round of fireworks in his honor. Strangely, twelve years 
     later on the night before her passing, my wife and I 
     witnessed another stunning display of fireworks put on just 
     across the inlet to Somes Sound by a neighbor celebrating a 
     wedding or other special event. While these lights were not 
     really designed in her honor, to us it was highly symbolic, 
     as if her time of respect had come and was recognized. In my 
     view, as well it should have been, for she was most 
     definitely the power that guided my father to the heights of 
     American government.

[[Page S8989]]

       In addition to my sister, Arlin, and me, Jane leaves one 
     sister, Virginia Garceau. Jane had three grandchildren, my 
     nephew, James, and my two daughters, Louise and Rebecca. She 
     left this life knowing also that she had five great 
     grandsons, Timothy, David, George, Douglas Caspar and 
     Charles. In a very strange twist of fate, Jane's ten-year old 
     thoroughbred Golden Retriever, ``Brandy,'' died of a sudden 
     stroke last Tuesday, July 7, right on the Full Moon. In my 
     view, his death meant that he will be there for Jane in her 
     spiritual journey beyond this life. Wow! Jane had a wonderful 
     long life, perhaps rewarded for all her service by a just God 
     or perhaps simply by the sense of firm resolve and purpose 
     she brought to everything she did; most likely it was by a 
     combination of both.
       But primarily, as is most important to me, Rebecca Jane 
     Dalton Weinberger was my mother. I loved her dearly and I 
     shall miss her very much. But I am happy too for her, as at 
     long last she can leave this weary Earth and perhaps re-join 
     her husband of 63 years. Thank you, Jane for giving me not 
     just life but a wonderful life. Indeed, though it was hardly 
     your nature, may you now rest most peacefully.
                                        Caspar W. Weinberger, Jr.,
     Mount Desert, ME.

                          ____________________