[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 46 (Thursday, March 14, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E308-E309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING PATRICIA HOWARD

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 14, 2019

  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay a special tribute to a 
great woman of Memphis, Patricia Claxton Howard, a staunch

[[Page E309]]

advocate of women's rights and girls' empowerment. Mrs. Howard had a 
lengthy Memphis lineage--one of her uncles played in W.C. Handy's band 
and her parents had a hair styling shop and a tire repair business on 
opposite sides of Chelsea Avenue. After graduating as the salutatorian 
of her Manassas High School class, she was admitted to Southwestern at 
Memphis, an early African American pioneer integrating what is now 
Rhodes College. It was as a sociology major at Southwestern that she 
got involved with an embryonic Girls Club of Memphis as a work-study 
project, an association that lasted more than 50 years during which she 
rose to become its President and CEO. She also served as the regional 
director of Girls Inc., and on the board of the national organization. 
Mrs. Howard also served as the executive director of the Memphis Center 
of Reproductive Health and on the board of the Memphis Regional Planned 
Parenthood. Mrs. Howard was inducted into the Memphis Chapter of The 
Links, Inc., in 1987 and served over the years as its vice president, 
president and financial secretary. Always active in her community, Mrs. 
Howard was on the Memphis and Shelby County Collaborative for American 
Humanities; the Community Forum; the Work Force Investment Agency; the 
Coalition of 100 Black Women; and the Blue Ridge Institute for 
Community Services Executives in the Southeast. She was also a member 
of Leadership Memphis '86. In 2017, she received the Girls Inc. of 
Memphis SMART Award. She received the Black Students Association Alumni 
of the Year Award from Rhodes in 2004, the 1999 Pinnacle Leadership 
Award from Youth United Way, the Thomas W. Briggs Community Service 
Award, the 1997 Mertie Buckman Mentor Award from the Women's Foundation 
and the 1992 Women of Achievement Vision Award. I want to extend my 
sincere condolences to her husband of 48 years, Aubrey; her son Adrian; 
her extended family and her many loving friends. She led an exemplary 
life and will be missed.

                          ____________________