[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 15, 2020)]
[House]
[Page H275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  KERRY McCOY PRESERVE ARKANSAS AWARD

  (Mr. HILL of Arkansas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Ms. 
Kerry McCoy who is being honored with the 2019 Special Recognition for 
Outstanding Stewardship from Preserve Arkansas.
  In 1975 Kerry founded her successful business, Arkansas Flag and 
Banner, with $400 in savings, and to start she sold flags door to door.
  In 1990 she expanded the business by purchasing the famed, yet 
neglected, historic Taborian Hall in Little Rock, Arkansas. Built in 
1916, Taborian Hall once hosted legendary entertainers like Duke 
Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, B.B. King, and Etta James.
  Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Kerry slowly and meticulously 
renovated Taborian Hall. In 2009 she founded the nonprofit Friends of 
the Dreamland Ballroom to save and protect the space that had once been 
the centerpiece of the hall. Kerry has since produced a documentary and 
published a book about the building. And I was proud to support her 
grant for a Civil Rights Preservation Grant from the National Park 
Service in 2018.
  I applaud Kerry for the efforts to preserve Taborian Hall and the 
Dreamland Ballroom, and I congratulate her on this special recognition 
from Preserve Arkansas.

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