[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 71 (Wednesday, May 1, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2554-S2555]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                     Remembering Betty Jo Williams

  Mr. President, I lost two great friends in the last week--one of them 
a Georgian. Nobody in this room knew her. Her name was Betty Jo 
Williams, who was 90 years old.

[[Page S2555]]

  Betty Jo was elected to the Georgia Legislature in 1978, which was 2 
years after I was elected in 1976 to that same body. We were two 
scrawny Republicans in a world of Democrats in Georgia. I was one of 
the first people to get elected from Cobb County, which is the suburban 
county of Atlanta, and she was the first woman to get elected to 
anything in Georgia. She was one of the first to break the glass 
ceiling. A lot of people may ask: Where is this glass ceiling? Well, I 
will tell you where it is. A lot of people tried to make their way, but 
they were always held back by laws or custom or whatever.
  Betty Jo fought for women's rights, and she fought for women's rights 
in the right way. She saw to it that women were equally represented and 
that they had an opportunity to represent themselves. She fought hard 
to see to it that there was no glass ceiling to hold back anybody who 
was trying to do the right things for the right reasons and had the 
right qualifications.
  I loved Betty Jo. She was great. In fact, she helped me to get 
elected as the minority leader, as the Republican leader, of the 
Georgia House of Representatives in 1983. I won by one vote. It was 7 
to 6. That shows you how small a caucus we had. She was one of those 
seven who voted for me, and I have never forgotten it. I am sure, when 
I have a funeral one day, somebody will come and remember on that day 
something I did for him. It is something you never take away.
  Betty Jo was a unique person. She had a husband and three wonderful 
children. Her husband passed on, and she spent the rest of her 25 years 
of life living with another gentleman. They had his children. Between 
the two of them, they raised 12 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren--
wonderful kids with wonderful opportunities. They helped those kids 
grow up to understand the great promise America had.
  When Betty Jo served in the legislative body, even though she was 
outnumbered by men by 20 to 1, she was a woman who broke the glass 
ceiling. She also broke custom. In the Georgia Legislature back in the 
sixties and seventies, you didn't find people putting their numbers in 
the phonebook. Betty Jo was the first one. She paid extra to have her 
number put in there in big, bold, black letters. She started the custom 
by which, all of a sudden, all who were in the State legislature got 
the Betty Jo Williams rule applied to them. If they didn't have their 
numbers in the book, they weren't in touch with their constituents. She 
did little things like that to make a difference.
  She was the first woman to be appointed to the Judiciary Committee. 
It was a great compliment to her, too, for she was not a lawyer. Even 
though she was not a lawyer, she was well respected, even by the 
speaker of the house, so she was appointed to the Judiciary Committee.
  Speaking of the speaker of the house in Georgia, his name was Tom 
Murphy. I am sure, somewhere in the walls of this room, his name has 
been used before. He was the toughest, most ornery, hardest working 
speaker of the house who ever was. He served as the speaker of the 
house in Georgia longer than any speaker in any house in the United 
States of America.
  He also didn't like women representatives, and he let everybody know 
it. Yet he couldn't handle Betty Jo because she was sweet, kind, and 
she was smart, and she always got the best of him. He would be tough, 
but she would be sweet, and she got a lot of things done that other 
women couldn't do because they would cry. Betty Jo didn't cry. She just 
worked a little harder to get it done. Tom Murphy finally broke down 
and did some things for the women in the caucus and the women of the 
Georgia State Legislature that hadn't been done for years--they were 
treated more like equals in the legislative body.
  Betty Jo was just one of those special, unique individuals who made 
my life better by my having known her. I thank her tonight for the vote 
she cast for me a long time ago as minority leader. I thank her for 
those children they raised and great-grandchildren and children. I 
thank her for all of the things she did in her community, for all of 
the things she did for women, and for all of the things she did to make 
everybody more equal and more served.
  Most importantly of all, I thank her for breaking that glass ceiling 
because there are a lot of women in office today in this Senate--20 
percent of our body--who wouldn't be here today if it had not been for 
the Betty Jo Williams of 50 years ago who broke the habits we had in 
America that didn't allow women to do a lot of things.
  I pay tribute to her, and I pay honor to her for her service and for 
the great time I had in knowing her in life. I will miss her greatly, 
but I will always be a better man for knowing Betty Jo Williams and 
what she taught me about life and success.