[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 103 (Tuesday, July 13, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1306]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO JENNIE MIRZA ESHOO

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 13, 2010

  Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Jennie Mirza Eshoo 
who will celebrate her 95th birthday on July 17, 2010.
  Jennie Eshoo was born Jennie Katherine Mirza on July 17, 1915 in 
Chicago, Illinois to Agase B. Mirza and Martha Alaverdy Mirza. She is 
the eldest of seven siblings: Julia Alexander, Elsie Eshoo, the late 
Esther Aziz, Alice Maupin, Sam Mirza, and Bill Mirza. She graduated 
from Waller High School in Chicago in 1934 and on September 22nd of 
that year she married Paul Eshoo.
  Jennie and Paul Eshoo moved from Chicago to Turlock, California where 
they raised four children on the family farm, growing grapes and 
walnuts and tending their laying hens: Peter, George, Agnes and Alice. 
They were active in the Assyrian-American community and Paul was a 
founder of the Turlock Assyrian American Civic Club. Jennie has been a 
charter member of the Turlock Assyrian American Civic Club since 1946.
  Jennie is a devoted member of St. John's Presbyterian Church and its 
oldest member. She has been a Church Elder for 37 years and served as 
Clerk of the Session from 1973 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1986. She also 
served on Presbyterian Ethnic Concerns as a delegate and as their 
Treasurer from 1973 to 2006.
  Jennie Mirza Eshoo is known throughout the community for her 
generosity and helpfulness to so many and volunteered at Emanuel 
Medical Center in Turlock for 32 years. From 1966 to 1971, she worked 
at California State University Stanislaus and was a kindergarten 
teacher's aide at Crowell Elementary School from 1974 to 1986. Jennie 
has an abiding love of democracy and served as a faithful election 
polling supervisor for Stanislaus County from 1987 to 2005.
  Jennie is an avid reader whose taste ranges from National Geographic 
to the latest novels. She loves to travel and on her two trips to 
Israel in 1980 and 1984, relished visiting in person the sites she has 
``visited'' in the Bible and other readings. Jennie still drives her 
own car which provides her convenient transportation for shopping as 
well as attending church services.
  Jennie is the matriarch of a large and loving family. In addition to 
her four children, she has eight grandchildren and eight great-
grandchildren. Her grandchildren are Lisa Brown, Lori Hill, Cherie 
Thompson, Christine Benjamin Nedved, Michelle Benjamin Eldridge, 
Annelise Martella, Karen Eshoo and Paul Eshoo. Her great-grandchildren 
are Amanda and Emily Brown, Madison and Jacob Eldridge, Cory Hill, 
Katherine and Jacqueline Nedved, and Peter Thompson.
  Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to honor Jennie Mirza Eshoo as she 
celebrates her 95th birthday. I ask the entire House of Representatives 
to join me, her family and her many friends in saluting her as she 
celebrates this extraordinary milestone and thank her for her decades 
of contributions to the Turlock community, her lifetime of love for her 
family, and her unswerving patriotism and love of our country.

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