[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 61 (Wednesday, April 28, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E698-E699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 THE INTRODUCTION OF THE ANTHRAX ATTACK COMMEMORATIVE STAMP RESOLUTION

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 28, 2010

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today I introduce a resolution directing 
the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee to recommend to the Postmaster 
General that a commemorative stamp be issued to honor the lives of 
Joseph Curseen, Jr. and Thomas Morris, Jr., the two United States 
Postal Service (USPS) workers, and District of Columbia natives, who 
died as a result of their exposure to anthrax while working at the USPS 
facility located at 900 Brentwood Road, NE, Washington, D.C., during 
the 2001 anthrax attack. This commemorative stamp meets the Citizens' 
Stamp Advisory Committee's requirement that no postal item may be 
issued sooner than five years after an individual's death.
  Joseph Curseen, Jr. and Thomas Morris, Jr. served the USPS honorably 
and diligently for a combined period of 52 years until their deaths on 
October 22, 2001, and October 21, 2001, respectively. Curseen, 
remembered as a quiet man with a fuzzy mustache, loved to tell stories 
and loved his church. He was so dedicated to his work, that during the 
15 years that he worked for the USPS, he never called in sick. His co-
workers described him as someone who was kind and courteous, who stayed 
at the Post Office seven days a week, giving up breaks to get the mail 
out, and who regularly led a postal worker Bible study group. In his 
neighborhood of Cambridge Estates, Maryland, Curseen was the president 
of the homeowners association, an avid jogger, and a member of St. John 
the Evangelist Church. To his neighbors, Curseen was someone who 
everyone knew, who was friendly, and who worked quietly, but ``really 
got things done.'' He helped build a playground and park in the 
Cambridge Estates area, even though he and his wife had no children. 
Although Curseen lived in Clinton, Maryland, he grew up in Southeast 
D.C., where Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church was his 
childhood parish and school. Curseen's wife, Celestine Willingham 
Curseen, to whom he was married for 16 years, described her late 
husband as a generous, kind, hard-working man who will be greatly 
missed.
  Thomas Morris, Jr. also grew up in the District of Columbia, although 
he and his family moved to Suitland, Maryland. Before joining the USPS, 
Morris served in the United States Air Force. Morris joined the USPC in 
1973 and worked as a distribution clerk. He was a hard worker who had 
no aversion to working overtime, a proud husband and father of one son 
and two stepchildren, as well as the president of a bowling league 
team. To his neighbors, Morris was a quiet, thoughtful, deeply 
religious and humble man, who dispensed helpful, and often paternal 
advice to his younger neighbors. His wife, Mary, described him as true 
to others and to himself, as someone who was respectful and law-
abiding.
  Please join me in honoring the lives of these two men, who died 
serving their country, and in requesting a commemorative stamp in their 
memory.
  I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.

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