[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 51 (Friday, April 8, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E678-E679]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF TENNESSEE GOVERNOR NED RAY McWHERTER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 8, 2011

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the life and 
legacy of the second longest serving Speaker of the Tennessee House of 
Representatives and the most beloved Tennessee Governor, Ned Ray 
McWherter. Governor McWherter was born on October 15, 1930 on a small 
farm in Palmersville, Tennessee. His tenacious work ethic and his 
ability to understand the problems of working people would lead him to 
become a revered Tennessee politician and successful entrepreneur as 
well.
  Ned McWherter grew up the son of a sharecropper and went on to work 
diligently at his family's restaurant, the Hotdog, at a shoe 
manufacturing company and as a traveling shoe salesman. In 1973, he 
found Volunteer Express with just two tractors, five trailers and three 
employees. He grew Volunteer Express to become one of the first LTL 
niche carriers in the nation by offering second and third day service 
to and from the East Coast. He also developed the entirety of the state 
of Tennessee and the surrounding areas into Volunteer Express' 
marketplace. This coming August, Volunteer Express will celebrate its 
38th anniversary.
  Although he worked hard throughout his life as a successful 
businessman, Ned never forgot his rural upbringing nor did he lose his 
love for everyday working people in Tennessee. McWherter served in the 
Tennessee National Guard from 1948-1969 and retired with the rank of 
Captain. In 1968, he ran unopposed to represent the citizens of Weakley 
County in the Tennessee House of Representatives. After serving only 
two terms, McWherter challenged the incumbent speaker of the House and 
won the speakership by one vote in both the Democratic caucus and the 
full House. He served in that position for 14 years, the longest tenure 
for a Tennessee Speaker of the House at that time.
  In 1986, McWherter ran for governor and unseated Republican Winfield 
Dunn. Governor McWherter had a progressive agenda that was positively 
felt across Tennessee and closely watched by governors in neighboring 
states. As a champion for education and road projects, he put his 
slogan ``Schools plus roads equal jobs'' into action. He restructured 
and grew K-12 public school funding by 49 percent through his ``21st 
Century Schools Program.'' This program put money directly into 
classrooms and funded textbooks, computers and more teachers. His ``95-
County Jobs Program'' was the largest road-building program in 
Tennessee's history. It linked all the counties of Tennessee via four-
lane roads and stimulated jobs in rural areas across the state.
  Growing up in a lower income family at the height of the Great 
Depression, Ned understood the challenges hard working families faced 
when it came to affordable health care. As governor, McWherter revamped 
Medicaid services in Tennessee to include coverage of more than one 
million Tennesseans, up from about 800,000. President Bill Clinton 
noted how Governor McWherter ``blazed a trail'' with his reform of 
Tennessee's Medicaid program.
  While I served as a Senator in the Tennessee Senate, I was proud to 
have worked with Governor McWherter on many projects that helped my 
city, Memphis. Gov. McWherter included funding in the budget he 
presented to the Tennessee General Assembly for the conversion of the 
Lorraine Motel, the site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King 
Jr., to the National Civil Rights Museum. He supported funding for the 
Memphis Zoo, a place he visited often as a child and of which he had 
fond memories. Gov. McWherter was also supportive of the arts, 
requesting

[[Page E679]]

funding for one of the pre-eminent art museums in the Memphis area, the 
Brooks Museum, where he is memorialized on their wall for his efforts.
  Governor McWherter continued his support for education by budgeting 
money for the University of Memphis to construct a new campus library 
that provides state-of-the-art access to information technology and is 
fully accessible to the disabled. In honor of his dedication to their 
project, the University of Memphis named the library the Ned R. 
McWherter Library.
  During and after his tenure, Governor McWherter served as a confidant 
to Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. President Carter noted how 
McWherter was ``one of the most effective and finest public servants'' 
he had ever known. President Clinton remembered how Gov. McWherter had 
a way of calming him down when he was excited and how McWherter's ``few 
blunt words'' were invaluable to him while he was in the White House. I 
remember how McWherter had a way of calming anyone down by simply 
telling them to ``ease along.''
  Governor Ned McWherter will be remembered for his hard work, his 
dedication to Tennessee, his many accomplishments and for his down-to-
earth nature and ability to connect to with the people he served. He 
had a charm like no other governor Tennessee has seen. He was blunt and 
never shied away from the real tasks at hand. He had a witty sense of 
humor coupled with his own folksy sayings. On the campaign trail, he 
often joked that all he would need to start the day as Governor was 
``four vanilla wafers and a cup of coffee.''
  Governor Ned Ray McWherter passed away on April 4, 2011 at the age of 
80. He will be missed by his family and friends as well as the many 
working and middle class Tennesseans he strove to serve and help. He is 
survived by his son, Michael Ray McWherter; his daughter-in-law, Mary 
Jane Wooten McWherter; two grandchildren, Walker Ray McWherter and Mary 
Bess McWherter; a stepdaughter, Linda Ramsey; and two step-
grandchildren, Matthew Ramsey and Brett Ramsey. He was predeceased by 
his beloved wife, Bette Jean Beck McWherter. Gov. McWherter was a great 
politician, leader, Tennessean and American. We are lucky to have had 
him come our way. His was a life well lived.

                          ____________________