[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 115 (Tuesday, July 31, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1353]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        HONORING MARIAN CANNON SCHLESINGER ON HER 100TH BIRTHDAY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MICHAEL E. CAPUANO

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 31, 2012

  Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to my constituent, 
Marian Cannon Schlesinger who will celebrate her 100th birthday on 
September 13, 2012. I am proud to join her legions of friends and 
admirers, and her loving family, in honoring her.
  She was born the fortunate daughter of Dr. Walter Bradford Cannon, an 
eminent Harvard physiologist, and Cornelia James Cannon, a noted 
feminist writer. An alumna of Cambridge High and Latin School and 
Radcliffe College, she is the mother of four children, Andrew, 
Christina, Stephen and Katharine. Her rich and balanced life has been 
full of family, politics, painting, writing, and tennis.
  A strong Progressive voice and wise chronicler of her times, Marian 
Schlesinger has been for almost ten decades a force to be reckoned with 
in the feisty politics of her hometown, Cambridge, Massachusetts. She 
canvassed for local politicians as a teenager and later campaigned for 
Adlai Stevenson. With her husband, the historian Arthur Schlesinger, 
Jr., she was an active participant in President Kennedy's New Frontier. 
Still today, she follows political news avidly, committed to democratic 
principles and Democratic ideals.
  Early in her life, she became a landscape and portrait painter of 
distinction, travelling extensively, painting people and places from 
China to Guatemala to Manchester, New Hampshire. She wrote and 
illustrated several children's books. In her 70's she began writing her 
memoirs, and she has published two spirited and insightful volumes 
chronicling a century of notable experiences in Cambridge, as well as 
her adventures around the world. She attributes her enduring vitality 
in part to her love of tennis which she played weekly, well into her 
mid-80s.
  With all these achievements, she made no claim to being a 
``celebrity.'' She always was and she is today a good citizen. She made 
her mark with paints and with words, with hard work and political 
savvy. As Marian Cannon Schlesinger approaches her 100th birthday, she 
remains an inspiration to us all.

                          ____________________