[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 87 (Friday, June 3, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E822]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      HONORING FOUR SPECIAL WOMEN

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, June 3, 2016

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask the House of 
Representatives to join me in honoring four special women in the 
District of Columbia who attend the Zion Baptist Church and will reach 
the significant milestone of turning 100 years old this summer. All 
four women are native Washingtonians, have known each other since early 
childhood and have remained lifelong friends. The Zion Baptist Church 
will officially recognize Ruth Elizabeth Chatman Hammett (June 14, 
1916), Gladys Ware Butler (July 4, 1916), Bernice Grimes Underwood 
(July 23, 1916) and Leona Costello Barnes (July 18, 1916) on June 18, 
2016.
  As little girls, the four grew up together in Southwest D.C. and 
could not have predicted, as they reflected on the many years and 
changes that followed their lives, that they would one day celebrate 
their 100th birthdays together. As they grew up, got married and had 
children, they witnessed the shaping of a remarkable century. They had 
relatives who fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam 
War. They felt hope listening to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 
and the despair of the riots that wracked their beloved city after his 
assassination. As they settled into middle age, they saw their family 
members join in the civil rights struggle for equality as they lived 
out their days in the neighborhood, and they never imagined that their 
friendship would outlast the stoops and storefronts.
  But in the 1950s, the area was marked for urban renewal and razed, 
decimating the community as their church congregation and neighbors 
were eventually scattered. But despite this upheaval, the four women's 
friendship persisted. They saw each other become grandmothers, great-
grandmothers, and ``great-great-greats''. They still share fond 
memories of places and people that no one else remembers and by the age 
of 92, the four women thought that they had seen it all. But then 
something truly amazing happened that they never would have predicted. 
A black man became the President of the United States. To each of these 
four women it was the culmination of a lifelong journey as black people 
in America, and they only wished that some of their relatives could 
have lived to witness such a historic event.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask the House to join me in recognizing the full lives 
of Ruth Elizabeth Chatman Hammett, Gladys Ware Butler, Bernice Grimes 
Underwood, and Leona Costello Barnes, and in celebrating this momentous 
occasion, which they are sharing together as lifelong friends.

                          ____________________