[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 125 (Tuesday, September 8, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2209-E2210]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        DEATH OF EVERETT DIRKSEN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. AARON SCHOCK

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, September 8, 2009

  Mr. SCHOCK. Madam Speaker, yesterday marked the 40th Anniversary of 
the death of Everett Dirksen. To celebrate the remarkable life of my 
predecessor and to mark this occasion, I respectfully ask that the 
following article be placed in the Record.

                          Dirksen's Last Days

  (By Frank H. Mackaman, The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL)

       On August 12, 1969, just before the U.S. Senate recessed 
     for a few weeks, Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen held a 
     press conference in his office. It would be his last. Dirksen 
     seemed relaxed and in a genial mood, chatting amiably with 
     reporters and joking with his staff. To the casual observer 
     everything seemed normal but it was not. Doctors had just 
     told the Senate Minority Leader he was seriously ill. They 
     had discovered a spot on Dirksen's right lung and suspected 
     cancer. A second x-ray on the 14th showed the tumor had 
     grown, making an operation necessary.
       To prepare, the senator from Pekin rested for three weeks 
     at ``Heart's Desire,'' his home outside Washington DC, 
     rummaging in his beloved garden and working on a memoir he 
     would never complete. A realist, Dirksen transferred title to 
     most of his property to his wife, Louella. He also gave her a 
     pre-signed resignation from the Senate if the operation left 
     him incapacitated. He loved the Senate, and it was ever on 
     his mind.
       Dirksen entered Walter Reed Hospital on Sunday, August 31, 
     to ready himself for the operation two days later. He took 
     with him a briefcase loaded with work, the contents of which 
     were transferred to The Dirksen Center several years after 
     his death. These documents show the amazing breadth of his 
     interests and the substantial burden of his office.
       The briefcase contained notes for upcoming speeches, 
     including one in his own handwriting entitled, ``God, 
     Country, and Grandchildren: Soliloquy with Grandchildren'' in 
     which he mused about the legacy his generation would leave 
     and harkened back to the lives his parents led in Pekin. He 
     made notes concerning the congressional session about to end. 
     Dirksen reviewed letters from constituents, information about 
     pending legislation, requests for appearances, a plea from 
     Illinois Governor Richard B. Ogilvie to revise the federal 
     revenue-sharing calculation, letters about federal jobs, an 
     early draft of what was called the ``Everett McKinley Dirksen 
     Library Project,'' and much, much more.
       On Tuesday morning, September 2, at 8:45, Colonel Alan R. 
     Hopeman and a team of Army surgeons began to operate. The 
     spot on Dirksen's lung could not be readily examined without 
     surgery, but, in surgical terms, it was in an almost ideal 
     position, close to the periphery of his chest, so that 
     surgeons could remove it with only a small incision. They

[[Page E2210]]

     did so without difficulty. The tumor, which had grown to an 
     inch in diameter, proved to be malignant.
       As they had planned in this eventuality, the surgeons took 
     the next step of removing the entire upper lobe of Dirksen's 
     right lung. What had begun as a relatively simple operation 
     became major surgery consuming three hours. The doctors found 
     no evidence the cancer had spread, however.
       Dirksen's strong constitution and vigor brought him through 
     the procedure with flying colors, and his recuperation was 
     rapid. Mrs. Dirksen and their daughter, Joy, and son-in-law, 
     Senator Howard Baker, found him alert and cheerful when they 
     were first allowed to see him on Wednesday. The next day, 
     however, Dirksen complained of pain and became confused and 
     restless, perhaps the result of a minor stroke, insufficient 
     oxygen, or even withdrawal symptoms from cigarettes (Dirksen 
     complained to his doctors and his son-in-law about not being 
     able to smoke). A second procedure became necessary to 
     replace the tube draining his lung.
       Senator Dirksen suffered a crisis that evening, and it 
     wasn't until 8:00 Saturday morning that his doctors 
     stabilized him. This episode probably caused the 
     bronchopneumonia which soon developed. He rallied after this 
     operation, though, even sitting up in bed to eat his meals. 
     He spent a restful night and ate a good breakfast with 
     Louella. He appeared to be past the immediate crisis of a 
     post-operation heart failure and was already making plans to 
     resume a work schedule. He even took a few minutes to go over 
     the papers in his briefcase. For example, a Seattle radio 
     station requested a tape about the marigold to which Dirksen 
     replied with this hand-written note:
       Dear Day--Just now I'm languishing in a hospital as a 
     result of surgery. An op'g [operating] room no match for my 
     marigold gardens. Guess the tape must wait. Sorry.
       The doctors assured Senator Baker that Dirksen was well on 
     the road to recovery and that Baker could travel to 
     California to join President Richard Nixon. The optimism 
     proved premature.
       Abruptly at 2:51 that afternoon, Sunday, September 7, 
     Dirksen collapsed and stopped breathing. His heart, which had 
     enlarged over the years to twice-normal size as the result of 
     emphysema, just quit. The desk sergeant at the Forest Glen 
     section of the hospital, Roger Brooks, received an urgent 
     call from the main hospital summoning a surgeon. Brooks took 
     a police cruiser to pick up a Col. Blake for the trip to 
     Dirksen's room. Army doctors were already at his side, 
     massaging his chest, trying to restart his heart. They gave 
     him sodium bicarbonate, calcium, and other medicines. They 
     used a defibrillator to try to shock his heart into action. 
     The doctors worked so vigorously that they cracked five of 
     his ribs. But Dirksen did not respond. At 4:52 p.m., the 
     doctors pronounced him dead at age 73. Louella and Joy were 
     with him at the end. Forty years ago.
       Mourning for the Senator was national and of a personal 
     quality, particularly among his colleagues in Congress and 
     his friends in Pekin. His body lay in state under the great 
     dome of the Capitol, an honor accorded to only three 
     members of the Senate before him.
       In his eulogy to the fallen leader, President Nixon 
     recalled remarks Daniel Webster had made more than a century 
     before in testimony to a political opponent: ``Our great men 
     are the common property of the country.'' That described 
     Dirksen well. His public service spanned an era of enormous 
     change, and he played a vital part in that change. Through 
     six presidencies, as Nixon put it, ``Everett Dirksen has had 
     a hand in shaping almost every important law that affects our 
     lives,'' and while he never became president, ``his impact 
     and influence on the Nation was greater than that of most 
     Presidents in our history.''
       Air Force One brought Dirksen home on Thursday, September 
     11. Pekin deserves much of the credit for Dirksen's influence 
     on the national stage. The senator knew that, and he said so 
     on a return visit to his hometown in 1961:
       After long absences enforced by the duties of office in 
     Washington, there always comes back to me some lines from 
     that poem which I learned long ago, ``Breathes there a man 
     with soul so dead, who never to himself has said, this is my 
     own, my native land.'' This is my own, my native land, my 
     native city, where the family taproot went deep many 
     generations ago, and it will ever be so, no matter what tasks 
     life may assign me. All the major decisions in my life have 
     been made here . . .
       The inspiration which I received here from a saintly 
     mother, a devoted family, steadfast friends, the constant 
     faith of teachers who taught me, the inspiration I found here 
     in church, and the atmosphere of a quiet and well ordered 
     community were the forces which helped to fashion those 
     decisions, and for these I shall be always and eternally 
     grateful. . . .
       An estimated 80,000 people watched the funeral procession 
     proceed the 15 miles from the Peoria airport, south on Route 
     24, through Pekin on Route 9, to the Glendale Memorial 
     Gardens on the east side of town where more than 6,000 stood 
     in waiting. Among the dignitaries accompanying the procession 
     were Vice President Spiro Agnew, five members of President 
     Richard Nixon's cabinet, 42 U.S. senators, and 27 U.S. 
     representatives. Dozens of state officials joined them, as 
     did over 200 members of the press.
       The 1:00 p.m. ceremony itself was brief, lasting only 15 
     minutes. Six pallbearers, representing the armed forces, 
     carried the casket to the gravesite. The Rev. Edward L.R. 
     Elson, chaplain of the Senate and pastor of the National 
     Presbyterian Church in Washington DC, conducted the service. 
     The Rev. Ralph Cordes, pastor of Pekin's Second Reformed 
     Church, and the Rev. Charles Rechard, pastor of Woodland 
     Presbyterian Church in New Orleans and a friend of the Baker 
     family, also delivered prayers. Members of the Pekin American 
     Legion post color guard participated in the ceremony, too, 
     along with the honor guard and the Chanute Air Force band. 
     Lt. Gen. Vernon P. Mock, commanding general of the Fifth 
     Army, presented the American flag, which had been draped over 
     the casket, to Mrs. Dirksen.
       When the ceremony ended, mourners passed by the casket. One 
     of the first was Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, who 
     placed a spray of marigolds, Dirksen's favorite flower, on 
     the casket. The two of them had enjoyed a friendly rivalry 
     over the years to name the national floral emblem--she a 
     proponent of the rose.
       The Rev. Elson had ended his eulogy fittingly with these 
     words, ``The last march has ended. A mighty man of God has 
     answered his last roll call. His battles are all fought, his 
     victories all won.''