[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 142 (Friday, September 6, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1102-E1103]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




COMMEMORATING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF SENATOR EVERETT DIRKSEN'S PASSING

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                           HON. DARIN LaHOOD

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 6, 2019

  Mr. LaHOOD. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commemorate the 50th anniversary 
of Senator Everett Dirksen's death.
  Senator Dirksen passed away on September 7, 1969, in Washington, DC, 
after serving sixteen years in the United States House of 
Representatives and seventeen years in the United States Senate.
  Before starting his career in public office, Senator Dirksen served 
abroad as a second lieutenant during the First World War. After 
returning from war, Dirksen studied law at the University of Minnesota 
College of Law at Minneapolis.
  Senator Dirksen practiced law in his home town of Pekin, Illinois, 
but public service was always Senator Dirksen's true passion. Dirksen 
served as a Member of Congress from 1933 to 1949, representing the 13th 
District of Illinois, then went on to represent Illinois in the U.S. 
Senate from 1951 until his death in 1969.
  As the Minority Leader of the Senate, Dirksen played a vital role in 
shaping many major pieces of legislation. Senator Dirksen earned the 
reputation of being a true champion of civil rights. It was his hard 
work and determination that allowed Dirksen to ensure the passage of 
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
  I include in the Record the essay, ``Everett Dirksen's Last Days,'' 
by Frank Mackaman. Frank is not only a close friend, but also the 
Director of The Dirksen Congressional Center in Senator Dirksen's 
hometown of Pekin, IL.
  I am grateful for all the work that Senator Dirksen did for our 
country, and I am proud to represent his former congressional district.

                      Everett Dirksen's Last Days

  (By Frank H. Mackaman, The Dirksen Congressional Center, Pekin, IL)

       On August 12, 1969, just before the U.S. Senate recessed 
     for a few weeks, Senator Everett McKinley Dirksen held a 
     press conference in his office. It would be his last. Dirksen 
     seemed relaxed and in a genial mood, chatting amiably with 
     reporters and joking with his staff. To the casual observer 
     everything seemed normal--but it was not. Doctors had just 
     told the Senate Minority Leader he was seriously ill. They 
     had discovered a spot on Dirksen's right lung and suspected 
     cancer. A second x-ray on the 14th showed the tumor had 
     grown, making an operation necessary.
       To prepare, the senator from Pekin rested for three weeks 
     at ``Heart's Desire,'' his home outside Washington DC, 
     rummaging in his beloved garden and working on a memoir he 
     would never complete. A realist, Dirksen transferred title to 
     most of his property to his wife, Louella. He also gave her a 
     pre-signed resignation from the Senate if the operation left 
     him incapacitated. He loved the Senate, and it was ever on 
     his mind.

[[Page E1103]]

       Dirksen entered Walter Reed Hospital on Sunday, August 31, 
     to ready himself for the operation two days later. He took 
     with him a briefcase loaded with work, the contents of which 
     were transferred to The Dirksen Congressional Center several 
     years after his death. These documents show the amazing 
     breadth of his interests and the substantial burden of his 
     office.
       The briefcase contained notes for upcoming speeches, 
     including one in his own handwriting entitled, ``God, 
     Country, and Grandchildren: Soliloquy with Grandchildren'' in 
     which he mused about the legacy his generation would leave 
     and harkened back to the lives his parents had led in Pekin. 
     He made notes concerning the congressional session about to 
     end. Dirksen reviewed letters from constituents, information 
     about pending legislation, requests for appearances, a plea 
     from lllinois Governor Richard B. Ogilvie to revise the 
     federal revenue-sharing calculation, letters about federal 
     jobs, an early draft of what was called the ``Everett 
     McKinley Dirksen Library Project,'' and much, much more.
       On Tuesday morning, September 2, at 8:45 a.m., Colonel Alan 
     R. Hopeman and a team of Army surgeons began to operate. The 
     spot on Dirksen's lung could not be readily examined without 
     surgery, but, in surgical terms, it was in an almost ideal 
     position, close to the periphery of his chest, so that 
     surgeons could remove it with only a small incision. They did 
     so without difficulty. The tumor, which had grown to an inch 
     in diameter, proved to be malignant.
       As they had planned on this eventuality, the surgeons took 
     the next step of removing the entire upper lobe of Dirksen's 
     right lung. What had begun as a relatively simple operation 
     became major surgery consuming three hours. The doctors found 
     no evidence the cancer had spread, however.
       Dirksen's strong constitution and vigor brought him through 
     the procedure with flying colors, and his recuperation was 
     rapid. Mrs. Dirksen and their daughter, Joy, and son-in-law, 
     Tennessee Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr., found him alert and 
     cheerful when they were first allowed to see him on 
     Wednesday, September 3. The next day, however, Dirksen 
     complained of pain and became confused and restless, perhaps 
     the result of a minor stroke, insufficient oxygen, or even 
     withdrawal symptoms from cigarettes (Dirksen complained to 
     his doctors and his son-in-law about not being able to 
     smoke). A second procedure became necessary to replace the 
     tube draining his lung.
       Senator Dirksen suffered a crisis that evening, and it 
     wasn't until 8:00 Saturday morning, September 6, that his 
     doctors stabilized him. This episode probably caused the 
     bronchopneumonia that soon developed. He rallied, though, 
     even sitting up in bed to eat his meals. He spent a restful 
     night and ate a good breakfast with Louella. He appeared to 
     be past the immediate crisis of a post-operation heart 
     failure and was already making plans to resume a work 
     schedule. He even took a few minutes to go over the papers in 
     his briefcase. For example, a Seattle radio station had 
     requested a tape about the marigold to which Dirksen replied 
     with this hand-written note:
       Dear Day--Just now I'm languishing in a hospital as a 
     result of surgery. An op'g [operating] room no match for my 
     marigold gardens. Guess the tape must wait. Sorry.
       The doctors assured Senator Baker that Dirksen was well on 
     the road to recovery and that Baker could travel to 
     California to join President Richard Nixon. The optimism 
     proved premature.
       Abruptly at 2:51 that afternoon, Sunday, September 7, 
     Dirksen collapsed and stopped breathing, His heart, which had 
     enlarged over the years to twice-normal size as the result of 
     emphysema, just quit. The desk sergeant at the Forest Glen 
     section of the hospital, Roger Brooks, received an urgent 
     call from the main hospital summoning a surgeon. Brooks took 
     a police cruiser to pick up a Col. Blake for the trip to 
     Dirksen's room. Army doctors were already at his side, 
     massaging his chest, trying to restart his heart. They gave 
     him sodium bicarbonate, calcium, and other medicines. They 
     used a defibrillator to try to shock his heart into action. 
     The doctors worked so vigorously that they cracked five of 
     his ribs. But Dirksen did not respond. At 4:52 p.m., the 
     doctors pronounced him dead at age 73. Louella and Joy were 
     with him at the end. Fifty years ago.
       Mourning for the Senator was national and of a personal 
     quality, particularly among his colleagues in Congress and 
     his friends in Pekin. His body lay in state under the great 
     dome of the Capitol, an honor accorded to only three members 
     of the Senate before him.
       In his eulogy to the fallen leader, President Nixon 
     recalled remarks Daniel Webster had made more than a century 
     before in testimony to a political opponent: ``Our great men 
     are the common property of the country.'' That described 
     Dirksen well. His public service spanned an era of enormous 
     change, and he played a vital part in that change. Through 
     six presidencies, as Nixon put it, ``Everett Dirksen has had 
     a hand in shaping almost every important law that affects our 
     lives,'' and while he never became president, ``his impact 
     and influence on the Nation was greater than that of most 
     Presidents in our history.''
       Air Force One brought Dirksen home on Thursday, September 
     11. Pekin deserves much of the credit for Dirksen's influence 
     on the national stage. The senator knew that, and he said so 
     on a return visit to his hometown in 1961:
       After long absences enforced by the duties of office in 
     Washington, there always comes back to me some lines from 
     that poem which I learned long ago, ``Breathes there a man 
     with soul so dead, who never to himself has said, this is my 
     own, my native land.'' This is my own, my native land, my 
     native city, where the family taproot went deep many 
     generations ago, and it will ever be so, no matter what tasks 
     life may assign me. All the major decisions in my life have 
     been made here . . .
       The inspiration which I received here from a saintly 
     mother, a devoted family, steadfast friends, the constant 
     faith of teachers who taught me, the inspiration I found here 
     in church, and the atmosphere of a quiet and will ordered 
     community were the forces which helped to fashion those 
     decisions, and for these I shall be always and eternally 
     grateful . . .
       An estimated 80,000 people watched the funeral procession 
     proceed the 15 miles from the Peoria airport, south on Route 
     24, through Pekin on Route 9, to the Glendale Memorial 
     Gardens on the east side of town where more than 6,000 stood 
     in waiting. Among the dignitaries accompanying the procession 
     were Vice President Spiro Agnew, five members of President 
     Nixon's cabinet, 42 U.S. senators, and 27 U.S. 
     representatives. Dozens of state officials joined them, as 
     did over 200 members of the press.
       The 1:00 p.m. ceremony itself was brief, lasting only 15 
     minutes. Six pallbearers, representing the armed forces, 
     carried the casket to the gravesite. The Rev. Edward L.R. 
     Elson, chaplain of the Senate and pastor of the National 
     Presbyterian Church in Washington DC, conducted the service. 
     The Rev. Ralph Cordes, pastor of Pekin's Second Reformed 
     Church, and the Rev. Charles Rechard, pastor of Woodland 
     Presbyterian Church in New Orleans and a friend of the Baker 
     family, also delivered prayers. Members of the Pekin American 
     Legion post color guard participated in the ceremony, too, 
     along with the honor guard and the Chanute Air Force band. 
     Lt. Gen. Vernon P. Mock, commanding general of the Fifth 
     Army, presented the American flag, which had been draped over 
     the casket, to Mrs. Dirksen.
       When the ceremony ended, mourners passed by the casket. One 
     of the first was Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, who 
     placed a spray of marigolds, Dirksen's favorite flower, on 
     the casket. The two of them had enjoyed a friendly rivalry 
     over the years to name the national floral emblem--she a 
     proponent of the rose.
       The Rev. Elson had ended his eulogy fittingly with these 
     words, ``The last march has ended. A mighty man of God has 
     answered his last roll call. His battles are all fought, his 
     victories all won.''

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