[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 30, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1251-E1252]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO TRISH LOWREY HOOPER

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 30, 2010

  Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the extraordinary 
life of a distinguished Californian, Trish Lowrey Hooper, a longtime 
resident of the 14th Congressional District, who died after a fall on 
Thursday, June 3, 2010. She lived 87 full, productive, and compassion-
filled years.
  Trish Hooper was a devoted wife, a loving mother, intrepid traveler, 
painter, writer, and passionate American who worked tirelessly for 
justice, women's rights, and democratic values. As a child she lived in 
New Jersey, California, and Hawaii, and was a graduate of Sarah 
Lawrence College.
  Trish Hooper had a great sense of joie de vivre. She was fascinated 
by everything and fascinating to be with. She married John Hooper, an 
attorney, and they spent the years of World War II on military bases. 
On returning to San Francisco, John Hooper practiced law and Trish 
raised their four children. In a characteristic action, she, John, and 
the children traveled by freighter to France in 1957, where they spent 
ten years with John working with NATO and she coping with the 
challenges of raising children in houses in Paris, Switzerland and 
Italy. She wrote charmingly of these European years in her memoirs.
  In 1967, Trish and John Hooper moved to Woodside and immersed 
themselves in local issues. They worked tirelessly with the candidate 
who would later be their son-in-law, Paul N. ``Pete'' McCloskey, in his 
successful campaign to represent the people of the Mid-Peninsula area 
in the United States Congress.
  Trish Hooper could prick the conscience of a community with her 
powerful thoughts and her pen. She had a conscience, she had integrity, 
and she had a magnificent mind. She went toe-to-toe with people and 
their ideas, always maintaining a level of civility and dignity while 
doing so. She always had the last word because her words were so 
powerful. She could move an individual with a paragraph, writing scores 
of powerful Letters to the Editors of newspapers and magazines across 
the country. Her work improved the editorial pages of local papers as 
well as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, and Newsweek. 
She wrote three volumes of memoirs and illustrated them with her own 
paintings. Her watercolors helped raise money for causes she loved, 
including animal welfare, death with dignity, and freedom of choice for 
women.
  One of her most recent letters was published in the Almanac, a 
venerable weekly published on the San Francisco Peninsula, on May 12, 
2010. In this letter she excoriated Arizona's new immigration law. She 
wrote that ``this new law increases the underlying racism which seems 
to have replaced the message held with such pride by the Statue of 
Liberty, a gift from France: `give me your tired, you poor, your 
huddled masses yearning to be free . . . I lift my lamp beside the 
golden door.'
  The message of `freedom, democracy, and international friendship' is 
put aside as this vaunted compassionate country loses its bearings. 
Urged on by hate-mongers and the shrill voice of `Gotcha!' plus cries 
of `down with government,' we're teetering on the brink of a new brand 
of isolationism.''
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in extending our 
deepest sympathies to Trish Hooper's daughters Margo Hooper and Helen 
Hooper McCloskey, her sons John C. Hooper and Lawrence Hooper, her 
sister Helen Virginia Brown, her brother Charles F.

[[Page E1252]]

Lowrey, and her five grandchildren. We honor the memory of Trish Hooper 
for the life she lived so well and for her extraordinary service to our 
Nation. She was a force of nature and will be sorely missed and never 
forgotten by anyone who was privileged to know her. Trish made our 
community better and our country stronger. Her brand of citizenship 
stands as the highest standard for all of us to emulate.

                          ____________________