[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 200 (Wednesday, December 23, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E3067]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING THE LIFE OF JIM CLARKE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 23, 2009

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I rise to share with our colleagues today 
the recent passing of Jim Clarke. He died on December 21, 2009 at his 
home in Annandale, Virginia, at the age of 75.
  In 1962 Jim joined WMAL, the predecessor of WJLA (ABC Channel 7), 
where he served as a dedicated television journalist for more than 40 
years. Jim did an outstanding job for Channel 7 and served our region 
well before retiring just a few years ago. Jim was a man of integrity 
and will be sorely missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing him. 
My thoughts and prayers go out to his wife, Lizbe, and the rest of his 
family during these difficult times.
  I would like to share an obituary for Jim that ran in the Washington 
Post on December 22.

               [From the Washington Post, Dec. 22, 2009]

        Jim Clarke, Emmy-Winning WJLA Anchor and Reporter, Dies

                          (By T. Rees Shapiro)

       Jim Clarke, 75, an Emmy Award-winning television journalist 
     for more than 40 years at what became WJLA (Channel 7), died 
     Dec. 21 at his home in Annandale. Mr. Clarke had a heart 
     attack in his sleep after shoveling snow for most of the day 
     before.
       In 1962, Mr. Clarke joined WMAL, the predecessor to WJLA, 
     as an evening news anchor and reporter. During his career at 
     the ABC News affiliate, his work included covering the race 
     riots after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, 
     Jr., the trial of the failed presidential assassin John 
     Hinckley, Jr. and the Iran-Contra hearings.
       Mr. Clarke focused many of his investigations on consumer 
     advocacy stories and government corruption. He won numerous 
     awards for his work, including nine local Emmy Awards, the 
     Ted Yates award for courageous journalism and the National 
     Headliner Award for an investigative report on abuses at St. 
     Elizabeths Hospital, where several psychiatric patients died 
     from neglect.
       Mr. Clarke was in Norway when the news broke in 1998 about 
     the sex scandal surrounding President Bill Clinton and former 
     White House intern Monica Lewinsky, and he caught the first 
     flight back to begin his coverage. To get a head start during 
     the plane ride home, he wrote his script for the next 
     newscast on the back of an airsickness bag.
       James Davis Clarke, a native of Auxier, Ky., was a 1956 
     communication arts graduate of Fordham University in New 
     York. One of his earliest jobs in the news business was as a 
     copyboy for NBC newscaster John Cameron Swayze.
       Mr. Clarke's big break came in the early 1960s as a radio 
     reporter for WGH radio in Newport News, Va. He secured a 
     taped interview at the home of Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 
     spy plane pilot who had been shot down over Russia. The 
     report made news across the country as a rare first-person 
     account of the crash and eventually reached the ears of the 
     WMAL newsman Ed Meyer, who recruited Mr. Clarke to join the 
     ABC affiliate in Washington.
       Mr. Clarke retired from WJLA in 2003 as a national affairs 
     reporter.
       Survivors include his wife of 48 years, Lizbe Schuster 
     Clarke of Annandale; four children, Christopher Clarke of 
     Washington, Kimberly Allen of Albuquerque, Katie Adamson of 
     Arlington County and Suzanne Sprague of Portland, Ore.; and 
     eight grandchildren.
       Among colleagues, Mr. Clarke was known to be intrepid. One 
     evening during the 1970s, Mr. Clarke had been out late in 
     Virginia covering a story that was in danger of not making 
     the 6 o'clock evening news.
       According to his co-worker John Corcoran, rather than not 
     make the broadcast, Mr. Clarke hopped a ride on the station's 
     helicopter and ordered an assignment editor and intern to 
     pick up an emergency blanket and meet him on the roof of the 
     station. The problem was, there was no helicopter landing 
     pad.
       Leaning outside the hovering helicopter, Mr. Clarke dropped 
     the tape from his report into the outstretched blanket below, 
     and the segment made it into the editing bays for that 
     evening's news.

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