[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 13, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E301]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING GREG JAYNES

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                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 13, 2019

  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember Greg Jaynes, an 
elegant writer and reporter who began his professional writing career 
at The Commercial Appeal in Memphis covering the assassination of the 
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mr. Jaynes died March 5 in New 
Orleans. After Memphis, Mr. Jaynes joined The New York Times as a 
foreign correspondent in East Africa, based in Nairobi. He later worked 
for Time, Life and The National Geographic and wrote two well-reviewed 
memoirs, Sketches from a Dirt Road and Come Hell On High Water: A 
Really Sullen Memoir, the latter about a voyage from Britain to Tahiti 
aboard a Russian freighter. Describing Jaynes, one reviewer called him 
``irascible but sociable, tormented and laughable, a man whose tough, 
cranky exterior conceals a warm heart and a capacity for compassion . . 
. We are richer for the grace of his pen and the strength of his high 
good humor.'' I knew Greg as a thoughtful reader and writer and agree 
with the reviewer. We met when I noticed him walking down my street in 
Memphis and, shortly thereafter, returning with a copy of The New York 
Times; we were neighbors. Seeing him walking back up the street with 
The New York Times was a rather unusual sight and prompted me to 
introduce myself, and we became friends. He was an unusually prolific 
reader and was always a font of knowledge and information. I want to 
extend my condolences to his son Todd Jaynes and his daughter, Whitney 
Ann Laidlaw, his extended family and friends and his loyal readers.

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