[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 50 (Tuesday, March 27, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E455-E456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        IN REMEMBRANCE OF MRS. CECILIA ARLEEN McINTYRE HARBISON

                                  _____
                                 

                      HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 27, 2012

  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a 
beloved educator, inspiring role model and gracious woman of faith, 
Mrs. Cecilia Arleen McIntyre Harbison. Sadly, Mrs. Harbison passed away 
on Wednesday, March 21, 2012. On Wednesday, March 28, 2012, Mrs. 
Harbison's funeral will be held in Columbus, Georgia, where her family, 
friends and colleagues will honor her life and legacy of good deeds.
  Mrs. Harbison was born on February 21, 1950, to Jesse and Emma 
McIntyre in Thomasville, Georgia. Following her birth, the family moved 
to Montgomery, Alabama, where she attended Booker T. Washington High 
School and was voted ``Miss Sweetheart'' of her senior class. After she 
obtained her high school

[[Page E456]]

diploma she enrolled in Alabama State University in the fall of 1968.
  On December 20, 1970, she married Ed Harbison at the historic Dexter 
Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama where Dr. Martin Luther 
King, Jr. served as a pastor from 1954 to 1960 and organized the 
Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955.
  In 1973, Mrs. Harbison and her husband moved to Columbus, Georgia, 
where she continued her college education and later graduated with a 
degree in early childhood education from Columbus State University. She 
would go on to also earn her master's degree in counseling from Troy 
University. In addition to her undergraduate and graduate degrees, Mrs. 
Harbison also earned leadership certifications from the Georgia School 
Counselors Association in Crisis Intervention, Cultural Diversity, Drug 
and Alcohol Intervention/Prevention, and Family Counseling.
  Dr. Maya Angelou once said that: ``I've learned that you shouldn't go 
through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able 
to throw something back.'' Cecilia used her life and educational skills 
to throw something back to her community. She served as an educator/
counselor in the Muscogee County School System; public relations 
official in the Gwinnett County School System; and as job developer for 
the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education. She was 
involved in many organizations that were dedicated to helping people to 
reach their full potential.
  Cecilia loved her family and she loved her God. She knew that these 
were two loves that would put you on the path to greatness. Her special 
relationship with God began as a young teen at Bethany Seventh Day 
Adventist Church in Montgomery and continued when she moved to Columbus 
and became affiliated with the Sheppard Drive Seventh Day Adventist 
Church. In her later years, she continued her relationship with God as 
a member of Kingdom Metropolitan Worship Center. She was a special 
woman who supported her husband and children in all of their endeavors.
  Cecilia was a fighter. Throughout her illness, she never gave up and 
kept on fighting the good fight. The Apostle Paul as he neared the end 
of this life penned the following words: ``For I am ready to be offered 
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, 
I have finished my course, and I have kept the faith: Henceforth, there 
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.'' Cecilia fought the good 
fight, finished her course and always kept the faith. And by the grace 
of God she has now claimed her crown.
  Mr. Speaker, my wife Vivian and I, along with the almost 700,000 
people in the Second Congressional District of Georgia, would like to 
extend our deepest sympathies to her husband, State Senator Ed 
Harbison, Cecilia's children, and other family members during this 
difficult time. May they be consoled and comforted by their abiding 
faith and the Holy Spirit in the days, weeks and months ahead.

                          ____________________