[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 72 (Thursday, April 27, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E553]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           IN CELEBRATION OF MRS. PEARL BIGGS' 100TH BIRTHDAY

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                      HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 27, 2017

  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to extend my 
sincerest congratulations and Happy Birthday wishes to Mrs. Pearl 
Biggs, who is celebrating her 100th birthday on Tuesday, May 2, 2017. A 
birthday celebration will be held for Mrs. Biggs on Saturday, April 29, 
2017.
  In 1917, the United States entered World War I, women did not yet 
have the right to vote, and segregation was rampant in the South. This 
is the year Mrs. Pearl Biggs was born to Mahaley Jones and Wiley 
Bunkley. Indeed, Mrs. Biggs has seen much in her lifetime and through 
it all, she has relied on her faith in the Lord.
  Mrs. Biggs began working as a cook at a young age and so it was 
inevitable that she would become known as a very good cook. In 1937, 
she married Pedro Biggs and they would spend the next 76 years together 
until his passing in 2014.
  Pearl and Pedro Biggs opened one of the first Black-owned businesses 
in the Geneva and Box Springs area in Southwest Georgia. They owned 
several businesses, including Biggs Sandwich Shop, a movie theatre, and 
a pulpwood company. They were also farmers.
  Mrs. Biggs loves to sing and she sang in the choir at her church. Her 
favorite song is ``Let Jesus Lead Me.'' She loves collard greens and 
the color pink. She enjoys fishing and talking on the phone. Mrs. Biggs 
has never met a stranger--she always wants to feed people and no one 
ever goes hungry around her.
  George Washington Carver once said, ``How far you go in life depends 
on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, 
sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong 
because someday in your life you will have been all of these.'' Mrs. 
Biggs has advanced far in life because she never forgot these lessons 
and always kept God first.
  As she celebrates 100 years of life, Mrs. Biggs will be surrounded by 
her sons, Monroe and Allen; daughters-in-law, Mildred and Cynthia; 
grandchildren, Timothy, Kelton, and Amelia; and great-grandchildren, 
Jackson and Christopher; plus a host of other family members and 
friends.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me, along with my wife 
Vivian and the almost 730,000 people of Georgia's Second Congressional 
District, in honoring an outstanding citizen and woman of faith, Mrs. 
Pearl Biggs, as she, her family, and friends celebrate her 100th 
birthday.

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