[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 16, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H612]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING THE LIFE OF DIONNE PHILLIPS BAGSBY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Veasey) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of my dear 
friend, Dionne Phillips Bagsby.
  Dionne was a very strong leader in the Fort Worth community. She 
served as a role model to so many people, including myself, and she 
really was driven by her work to desegregate the Fort Worth schools 
when she first came to Fort Worth. That really spurred her to run for 
the county commissioner's seat in precinct one in 1988.
  When she ran, she became the first woman and the first African 
American to become a Tarrant County commissioner. She did a tremendous 
job for Tarrant County and the city of Fort Worth.
  Throughout her 16-year tenure, Dionne fought to improve public 
education and increase access to health resources for women and 
children. Her former precinct administrator, who is now the county 
commissioner, Roy Charles Brooks, said it best when he said that Dionne 
was not a politician, she was a public servant.
  In 2005, I was proud to be a part of the Texas Legislature and honor 
her for a lifetime of service.
  Again, she was a mentor and mentored so many young women throughout 
Fort Worth who sought to replicate her success. She helped them aspire 
to careers that would challenge the norm. She always encouraged those 
young women to never give up. Dionne broke barriers for the African 
American community, for women, for the disadvantaged, for the disabled, 
and for so many others, including myself.
  Mr. Speaker, I will tell you and will be honest with you, if you ever 
met Dionne, you will know that she was very much into straight talk. 
She did not mince words, and she always cut right to the chase. But I 
will also tell you, as I mentioned before, that Dionne was a tremendous 
mentor.
  When I was elected to the State Legislature in 2004, Dionne was the 
first person to call me up, and we went and had lunch. When I got 
married later, she called my wife and me up, and we went and had lunch 
with her. When I came to Congress and was elected in 2012, she was one 
of the first people to call me up, and she; Lorraine Miller, who was a 
former Clerk of the House here; my wife; and I all went and had dinner. 
She was more than happy to dispense good advice that was very, very 
helpful to me.
  Mr. Speaker, Dionne was also very instrumental in bringing a lot of 
firsts to Fort Worth. I mentioned her work with the schools, her being 
the first Black and first woman on the county commissioners court. But 
her legacy still lives today through The Links. She was one of the 
legacy members of The Links in Fort Worth. The Greater Fort Worth Area 
Negro Business and Professional Women's Club, she got a national 
charter for that venerable organization and had the first meeting in 
her living room in southeast Fort Worth.
  Mr. Speaker, if you ever went to any of Dionne's receptions while she 
was still in office between that 1988 and 2005 time period, you will 
know that one of the things that she liked to do was give shout-outs. 
She gave shout-outs to everybody from people in her family to the 
person who was her trainer.
  I am going to give a shout-out to some of her family members and 
special friends today--and everybody back home, please forgive me if I 
have left out anyone--her daughter, Dionne Anne Jones; her son, Jimmy 
Bagsby; her husband who preceded her in death who was also on the Fort 
Worth City Council, Jim Bagsby; her grandchildren, Kirbe, Josiah, 
Kelli, and Elijah; and her brother, Paul Phillips.
  She had so many friends whom she would like to give shout-outs to, 
including one who preceded her in death, Dr. Erma Johnson Hadley, her 
dear friend; Norma Roby; Bob Sanders; Jesse Gaines; again, Lorraine 
Miller; Gwendolyn Morrison; Viney Chandler; and, again, County 
Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks, who was also someone Dionne mentored 
and who was her precinct administrator before he became county 
commissioner. He also was a very, very dear friend.
  We lost a giant in Fort Worth by losing Dionne. She will be missed 
because she was a friend to so many and always had so many colorful, 
wonderful, and humorous things to say. But I can tell you that our city 
is better off and our county is better off because Dionne Bagsby moved 
to Fort Worth with her husband and helped make it a better place for 
everybody.

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