[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 26 (Monday, February 25, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E181]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         McILHENNY COMPANY CEO PAUL McILHENNY PASSES AWAY AT 68

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                     HON. CHARLES W. BOUSTANY, JR.

                              of louisiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 25, 2013

  Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to 
commemorate the passing of a great leader in the South Louisiana 
community who built his family business into a national brand and was 
known as ``The Scion of Spice.''
  Paul McIlhenny, CEO of the McIlhenny Company and owner of the Tabasco 
sauce brand, was a true friend and advocate for the state of Louisiana, 
promoting tourism and Cajun culture abroad while fighting coastal 
erosion at home. He was passionate about food, an avid hunter, a 
generous philanthropist and always quick with a joke. He will be dearly 
missed by the entire community in South Louisiana and remembered as a 
steadfast advocate for our state. To commemorate Mr. McIlhenny's 
passing, I request to include an article from the New Orleans Times-
Picayune, written by John Pope, in its entirety into the Congressional 
Record:

       Paul McIlhenny, an ebullient executive who for 14 years led 
     the family-owned company that makes Tabasco sauce and who 
     reigned as Rex in 2006, died Saturday at his New Orleans 
     home, apparently of a heart attack. He was 68.
       Mr. McIlhenny, whom The New York Times once called ``The 
     Scion of Spice,'' became the company's president in 1998--the 
     sixth family member to hold that title--and chief executive 
     officer two years later. At his death, he still held the 
     latter position and also was chairman of the board of 
     directors, but a cousin, Anthony ``Tony'' Simmons, was named 
     president last year.
       The company, which was founded by Edmund McIlhenny in 1868 
     on Avery Island, near New Iberia, sells Tabasco sauce in 
     about 165 countries and has 11 websites outside the United 
     States, in North and South America and Europe.
       During Mr. McIlhenny's years at the helm of the McIlhenny 
     Co., he worked aggressively to expand the number of items to 
     which the familiar Tabasco logo could be affixed. They 
     include T-shirts, aprons, neckties, teddy bears and computer 
     screensavers, as well as seven varieties of hot sauce.
       In 2009, Queen Elizabeth II granted the company a royal 
     warrant, which entitles it to advertise that it supplies the 
     pepper sauce to the British royal family. In honor of the 
     queen's Diamond Jubilee last year, the company turned out a 
     Tabasco-sauce box for its British market emblazoned with 
     drawings of dozens of diamonds.
       In the United States, the company provides hot sauce for 
     Air Force One.
       Mr. McIlhenny entered the family business in 1967, shortly 
     after earning a degree in political science at the University 
     of the South in Tennessee.
       Despite his passion for all things Louisiana, Mr. McIlhenny 
     was born in Houston in 1944, along with a twin sister, Sara, 
     because their mother was staying there with her mother while 
     the children's father was in the military during World War 
     II, said his daughter Barbara McIlhenny Fitz-Hugh.
       Mr. McIlhenny grew up in New Orleans and spent much of his 
     childhood shuttling between New Orleans and the family's 
     compound on Avery Island.
       Because of his interest in the wetlands around Avery 
     Island, his passion for hunting and his mother's membership 
     on a committee concerned with coastal-zone management, Mr. 
     McIlhenny became aware years ago of Louisiana's increasingly 
     fragile coastline. Gov. Mike Foster appointed him to the 
     Governor's Advisory Commission on Coastal Restoration, 
     Protection and Conservation, and he was a vice chairman and 
     board member of the America's Wetland Foundation, whose logo 
     appears on every box of Tabasco sauce sold in the United 
     States.
       Although Mr. McIlhenny was serious about coastal 
     restoration and the preservation of Louisiana's wetlands, he 
     generally was a merry man--one friend described him as 
     ``Falstaffian''--who strove to inject humor wherever 
     possible.
       A few days before he reigned as Rex in 2006, Mr. McIlhenny 
     quipped that if, during the ceremonial toast to the mayor at 
     Gallier Hall, the subject of hot sauce came up, ``I'll say 
     that's one form of global warming I'm totally in favor of. 
     We're defending the world against bland food.''
       He took the throne six months after Hurricane Katrina 
     roared ashore, the city's levees failed and 80 percent of New 
     Orleans was flooded. The Rex den took on about 5 feet of 
     water; watermarks were clearly visible on its floats when the 
     parade rolled.
       Because of the storm's impact, some people, including 
     Carnival insiders, had questioned the wisdom of having 
     parades in 2006. Mr. McIlhenny said in a pre-parade interview 
     that the thought never crossed his mind.``If there was any 
     time when we needed distraction, digression, diversion from 
     the grind, it's Mardi Gras,'' he said, ``and if there was any 
     time we ever needed it, it's here. We need to let it all hang 
     out and, in the sense of pre-Lenten revelry, make sure we 
     relax and recreate.''
       Mr. McIlhenny was president of Bayou Corp., his hunting 
     club in Vermilion Parish; a former president of the New 
     Iberia Rotary Club; a founder and board member of Fuelman/
     Fleetman Cos. Inc.; a director of the Friends of the National 
     Arboretum; a member of the Marine Military Academy board; and 
     a lifetime sponsor of Ducks Unlimited. He also was a member 
     of the Bohemian Grove, the Avoca Duck Club, the Boston Club, 
     the Louisiana Club, the Recess Club and the Chattooga Club.
       In 2010, Mr. McIlhenny was inducted into the James Beard 
     Foundation's Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America. He 
     was an author of a cookbook compiled to mark the McIlhenny 
     Co.'s 125th anniversary.
       Survivors include his wife, Judith Goodwin McIlhenny; two 
     daughters, Barbara McIlhenny Fitz-Hugh of New Orleans and 
     Rosemary McIlhenny Dinkins of Nashville, Tenn.; a brother, 
     Gustaf McIlhenny of Maine; a sister, Sara McIlhenny Ringle of 
     Covington; and four grandchildren.

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