[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.
____________________