[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 57 (Monday, May 2, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S2574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO ETHEL MARTIN

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a 
Kentuckian who has led a remarkable and inspirational life, Ms. Ethel 
Richardson Martin. In 1911 in Kenton County, KY, Ethel Martin was 
born--meaning that this March, she celebrated her 100th birthday. And 
she has much to be proud of, looking back at a century of a life well 
lived.
  Ms. Martin came from a large family; her parents Eugene and Frances 
had 11 children. Ethel and her sisters liked to sing, and I am told 
they once sang at Renfro Valley, site of many great Kentucky music 
performances. Ms. Martin graduated from Western Kentucky State Teachers 
College--now Western Kentucky University--and served as a missionary in 
Georgia, mostly in the area of Macon. In 1943, with America at war with 
the Axis Powers, she enlisted in the Women's Army Corps, the branch of 
our country's Armed Forces that GEN Douglas MacArthur once called ``my 
best soldiers.''
  Ms. Martin began her WAC training in Des Moines, IA. She served her 
country with distinction and rose to the rank of captain. When the war 
ended, she participated in the prosecution of the Germany's war 
criminals. She was one of the first Americans to see the inside of 
Adolf Hitler's mountain retreat called the Eagle's Nest, and she served 
as an adjunct to an attorney who worked on the Nuremburg Trials.
  In 1947, Ms. Martin was discharged from Army service. She returned to 
America, and she earned her master's degree and her doctorate from the 
University of Cincinnati. She also met and married the love of her 
life, Ansel C. Martin. Ansel was a music teacher, and he has been 
missed by all who knew him since his passing in 1991.
  Ethel found a career in education, and she and Ansel lived in North 
Carolina for a time. She was a leader in the efforts of her church, the 
First United Methodist Church located in Hendersonville, NC, to sponsor 
Cambodian refugees to the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. In 
2001, she returned to her native Kentucky. We are lucky to have her 
back in the Bluegrass State and happy to help celebrate her 100th 
birthday. Her long life of service to her country and her community are 
an inspiration to us all.

                          ____________________