[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 10 (Friday, January 25, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E68-E69]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               IN HONOR OF LOIS ``PAULINE'' NOLAN LARSON

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN B. LARSON

                             of connecticut

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, January 25, 2013

  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, Thoreau famously said most 
men lead lives of quiet desperation. My mother led a life of quiet 
inspiration. Thousands gave witness to that and stood in line for more 
than three hours to pay their final respects to Lois Nolan Larson, 
affectionately known as Pauline. My family was deeply touched by the 
outpouring of the community. It was a great tribute to my mother's 
lifetime commitment to her community. Several kind statements of 
appreciation were made by elected officials--from the President of the 
United States to the Governor of our state; from Senators to House 
Leaders in Congress and members of the Connecticut General Assembly. It 
was, however, two articles--one by Tom Condon of The Hartford Courant, 
the other by Bill Doak of our hometown paper, The East Hartford 
Gazette, that captured the sentiment, feeling and appreciation of an 
everyday mom who gave to her community and set an example to emulate. 
The following are those two articles:

               [From the Hartford Courant, Oct. 12, 2012]

       East Hartford Mother Left Legacy of Involvement and Action

                            (By Tom Condon)

       Democracy works because good people give their time and get 
     involved. At the municipal level, few epitomized the ethic of 
     participation quite like Lois Pauline Nolan Larson of East 
     Hartford, who died this week at 87.
       For decades starting in the 1960s, Mrs. Larson, known to 
     all as Pauline, served the town in most of the ways it is 
     possible to serve. She was a member of the town council and 
     the Democratic town committee, on which she served as vice 
     chairwoman and treasurer. She served on the town's parks and 
     visiting nurse association boards and the cemetery 
     commission. The community center in the Mayberry Village 
     neighborhood where she lived is named in her honor.
       She volunteered her time while she and her husband were 
     raising eight children, and while she was battling multiple 
     sclerosis. She inspired two of her children to go into public 
     life. Her son Timothy Larson was mayor of East Hartford for 
     eight years and is now a state representative. Her son John 
     Larson is the seven-term U.S. representative from the 1st 
     District.
       John Larson spoke of his mother's battle with declining 
     health in a televised speech at the recent Democratic 
     National Convention, and how she wanted not to be a burden to 
     her family. ``Mom, you're not a burden,'' Larson told the 
     convention crowd. ``You're an inspiration.''
       Many in East Hartford nodded.
                                  ____


            [From the East Hartford Gazette, Oct. 18, 2012]

            Pauline Larson: `The Lilly of Mayberry Village'

                             (By Bill Doak)

       Mayberry Village is many things. As Congressman John Larson 
     points out, the former apple orchard laid out with a tight-
     knit net of streets was a federal housing project, cinder 
     block and wood-frame coal-heated homes needed to power The 
     Aircraft with a supply of workers, then returning veterans 
     from World War II. Emigrants from the Canadian provinces and 
     Maine settled in Mayberry along with workers from other 
     factory towns all over Connecticut and Massachusetts, 
     attracted by steady, well-paying work here in East Hartford. 
     Others came displaced by massive highway redevelopment 
     projects right here in East Hartford where Route 2 plowed 
     through the flimsier wood-framed East Hartford Estates 
     located down by the Riverfront and took two-thirds of the 
     town's large mobile home community which extended from Pratt 
     & Whitney to the river, and the wooden, barracks-style homes 
     in what is now McAuliffe Park.
       Above the then-new, modern Mayberry Village, roads and 
     homes covered the top of the hill where Laurel Park, a rustic 
     entryway over a bridge across the Hockanum River greeted 
     trolley car day trippers. Homes and families replaced apples 
     and arcades. One constant solidified Mayberry Village: its 
     moms.
       One of those fell from the tree of life last Wednesday. 
     Lois ``Pauline'' Nolan Larson. Yes, she is known to the 
     thousand or so who waited outside D'Esopo's East Hartford 
     Funeral Chapel Sunday as the mother of Mayberry Village, and 
     East Hartford's, only United States Congressman John Larson; 
     former East Hartford Mayor Timothy D. Larson, the first mayor 
     to come out of the Village. But for the other 500 she was 
     also Pauline Larson, the grand dame of East Hartford politics 
     for the past 50 years. Indeed, without her example, 
     Congressman Larson acknowledged from the pulpit of St. Isaac 
     Jogues church Monday, he would not have become the person he 
     is--not the politician he has become--today. And how proud 
     East Hartford would be to hear our John give a ``shout out'' 
     to his hometown of East Hartford, to Mayberry Village and to 
     his mother specifically on the national stage of the 
     Democratic National Convention last month.
       We have heard it suggested that East Hartford would be 
     better off demolishing Mayberry Village. Could happen. East 
     Hartford is far from being a sentimental place. You only have 
     to look at every Redevelopment proposal to see that 
     demolition is right

[[Page E69]]

     at the top of every suggested improvement here. Preservation 
     is treated as if it were a disease one might catch by 
     spending too much time in South Glastonbury, South Windsor or 
     admiring a covered bridge. Bucket loaders are on speed dial 
     at Town Hall.
       And yet Mayberry Village, problems or no, survives--and, to 
     those who attended Monday night's Mayberry School Literacy 
     Night, thrives.
       Perhaps that is because ``The Village'' is very much still 
     a village of moms. Pauline and her husband Ray raised 8 
     children, moving three times in Mayberry, settling into what 
     Mayberry residents still call ``The New Village,'' on 
     Chandler Street. Mayberry School, named after a well-known 
     East Hartford family doctor, Dr. Franklin F. Mayberry, 
     replaced the Little Red Schoolhouse first organized in the 
     Community Building, now the Lois Nolan Larson Community 
     Center.
       It was moms such as Pauline Larson who kept the children 
     occupied. Moms organized the PTA for the Little Red 
     Schoolhouse located where St. Isaac Jogues is today. Mrs. 
     Miles, Mrs. Jordan, Mrs. Larson; moms such as Mrs. Korngiebel 
     and Mrs. Jamo and Mrs. Mazolli. They kept an eye on all the 
     children, not just their own. They called one another when 
     someone was playing not where they were supposed to be, or 
     would be late for dinner. They exchanged clothing that was 
     outgrown, chipped in to help a family in need, shared venison 
     or fresh Maine potatoes just picked by local children 
     returning back from the fields up north. The school and the 
     church are central to Mayberry Village, not politics. More 
     families pay attention to what is going on down Cannon Road 
     than to happenings at Town Hall.
       But Pauline Larson realized the political process was and 
     is vital to the lifeblood of a community. She taught her 
     children that it was important for them to get involved, to 
     participate, to take part in the system their father, 
     Raymond, fought for in the Navy, his ship torpedoed by a 
     kamikaze attack 30 miles off the coast of Japan near the end 
     of World War II. Call it divine intercession of a girl from 
     Lawrence, Massachusetts versus the divine wind of the 
     Japanese, but John became a history teacher, state senator 
     and is now one of the country's top leaders as chairman of 
     the House Democratic Caucus. This did not happen by magic but 
     by dint of hard work and never forgetting where you are from; 
     by staying humble and remembering to pray and to give thanks 
     and credit where credit was due. All values instilled by a 
     Mayberry Village mom, by all the neighborhood moms as well, 
     an army of mothers reminding you to wipe your shoes and wash 
     your hands and do your homework.
       The Larson family lost Ray Larson 24 years ago. Pauline 
     found herself with multiple sclerosis, and battled this 
     debilitating illness for the last third of her life without 
     complaint. She still stayed involved in her beloved 
     Democratic party, in her town and in her growing family's 
     lives. David Larson became her caregiver for which he earned 
     the enduring appreciation of his family until she had to move 
     from Chandler Street to the Riverside Health Care Center 
     where she also received great and loving care, the 
     congressman said, in a eulogy that was a tribute not just to 
     one woman but to a place and time where an ordinary mom could 
     make a difference, and an extraordinary difference in terms 
     of raising a mayor and a congressman--not to mention the rest 
     of the Larson clan, all contributing, hard-working citizens 
     in our society.
       A Jesuit missionary might have his name on the church--
     October 21 Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Jogues guide and the 
     bronze statue on the eastern corner of the church on Home 
     Terrace will be canonized in Rome as the first American 
     Indian saint in the Catholic Church by Pope Benedict XVI--but 
     Mayberry Village's moms also deserve a place of honor. And it 
     is no small coincidence that an Ave Maria was sung inside St. 
     Isaacs so close to the day 356 years ago--October 18, 1646--
     when Jogues was martyred and when Kateri, who died in 1680 at 
     age 24, ``The Lilly of the Mohawks,'' will be canonized 
     Sunday, an event of significance for native tribes in the 
     U.S., Canada and Mexico.
       Women have a significant role in keeping the faith of 
     Mayberry Village together. Far too many haven't any other 
     choice, somehow making ends meet. As our ongoing poor economy 
     continues to plague us, places such as Mayberry feel it, but 
     are accustomed to it. They know hard times are one check 
     away. Indeed the Monday stop by the Foodshare truck, which 
     typically sees a line of hundreds lining up for free food, 
     was cancelled Monday, a hand-written sign under the gaze of 
     Blessed Kateri's statue stated.
       Being a true Mayberry Village mom, Lois ``Pauline'' Nolan 
     Larson would likely have hated being a cause of such an 
     inconvenience.
       That is a Mayberry Village mom.

                          ____________________