[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 134 (Tuesday, August 14, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1148-E1149]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




ACKNOWLEDGING MS. JENY WALKER UPON HER RETIREMENT AS CEMETERY DIRECTOR 
                   AT MOUNTAIN HOME NATIONAL CEMETERY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. DAVID P. ROE

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 14, 2018

  Mr. ROE of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge Ms. 
Jeny Walker upon her retirement as Cemetery Director at Mountain Home 
National Cemetery. Ms. Walker was named Director of Mountain Home 
National Cemetery effective July 27, 2015. She was responsible for all 
burial, maintenance and administrative operations at the facility.

[[Page E1149]]

Prior to this assignment, Ms. Walker served as Assistant Director of 
Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery from August 2014. She completed the 
National Cemetery Administration's comprehensive, year-long Cemetery 
Director Intern Program in August 2014.
  Jeny is a pillar of her community and has brought much peace and 
comfort to Veterans and their families in the entire Northeastern 
Tennessee region. She has led significant improvement and expansion 
efforts at the cemetery to include an expansion project that doubles 
the size of the cemetery and will provide an additional 50 years of 
gravesite availability for veterans and their families. She also led 
her team to a recent National Cemetery Administration Organizational 
Assessment and Improvement award for exemplary performance in key 
management and operational areas such as customer service, cemetery 
service, and access to information. Jeny's enduring legacy includes a 
book she published about Mountain Home National Cemetery entitled, A 
Book of Heroes: Discover Their Story, Honor Their Sacrifice. In her 
three years as the Cemetery Director at Mountain Home, Jeny was driven 
to serve veterans and their families. She was a VA ambassador in the 
community and was led by the principles of servant leadership. When 
several headstones and monuments were vandalized at Old Gray Cemetery 
in Knoxville, Jeny organized a group of employee volunteers to spend a 
Saturday afternoon to share their expertise and repair the broken 
monuments and reset the headstones. This is a testament to the special 
kind of person Jeny is.
  I include in the Record a message Jeny wrote her colleagues upon 
retirement:

       Long ago and far away, working in my first cemetery as an 
     intern, I found this on a headstone. I've kept it and read it 
     often because it eloquently states exactly what I feel: 
     Remember me. Think of me. Love me as you do now. Essentially 
     nothing changes by my leaving. If I were to ask anything of 
     you, it's that you pray I will have more time than I think I 
     do. More time with family. More time having fun. More time to 
     live. Much love for each of you, Jeny.

  I am grateful for Jeny's service to veterans and wish her peace. She 
is in my prayers and in the prayers of so many. I'd also like to thank 
the National Cemetery Administration for sharing Jeny's background

                          ____________________