[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 25 (Friday, February 15, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E170]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          IN MEMORY OF NANCY FLAKE, A JOURNALIST'S JOURNALIST

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. KEVIN BRADY

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, February 15, 2013

  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise to remember a journalist's 
journalist and a dear friend.
  This week, Montgomery County was saddened to read the news about the 
loss of Nancy Flake, a journalist who cared deeply about our community.
  A short, but valiant battle with cancer took Nancy away from us too 
soon, but I wanted the nation to know more about this amazing woman 
because I will always appreciate her diligence, her fairness and her 
obvious love for all things education-related.
  William Gordon and Julia Ann Roberts welcomed their daughter, Nancy 
to this world in Bartlesville, Oklahoma on May 10, 1956. Nancy would 
continue to love all things `Sooner' long after becoming a Texan.
  She taught herself to read at age 4 and never stopped reading 
everything she could get her hands on. She loved music and was a self-
taught guitar player. Nancy earned her journalism degree at the 
University of Central Oklahoma and got to pursue her love of reporting 
here in Montgomery County where her reporting and columns, earned the 
respect of public officials like me, our community, Courier readers, 
and her peers who showered her with numerous awards.
  But this passionate reporter was so much more than words on a page, 
she was a dedicated mother and friend. Mason and Marty can attest to 
both their mother's protective nature and her intense pride in their 
accomplishments in high school and now in college. Her friends have too 
many stories to recount here today of her willingness to listen to any 
problem, her wise counsel towards solutions and her ability to make 
them laugh even in the toughest of times.
  Just last month, Nancy learned she had cancer and she fought it with 
the same strength, courage and humor she brought to journalism and has 
passed down to her sons, who were with her when she left this world to 
become Heaven's intrepid reporter.
  Today, her sons, her father, brother, Bill Roberts Jr., his wife 
Jayne; her sister, Carol Starrett and husband David; numerous nieces 
and nephews and a myriad of friends, co-workers and members of the 
community she touched with her gifts, are saying goodbye at a special 
memorial service at The Woodlands United Methodist Church.
  Booker T. Washington once said ``Success in life is founded upon 
attention to the small things rather than the large things; to the 
every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are 
remote and uncommon.'' Nancy helped us all understand and appreciate 
the every day things nearest to us in ways we might not have 
appreciated without her insight. She cherished the small things with 
her precious sons and now they will cherish wonderful memories knowing 
she is in our Lord's loving embrace.

                          ____________________