[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 153 (Friday, September 4, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E818]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING DEBORAH WRIGLEY AND HER CONTRIBUTIONS TO AMERICA AND THE 
     HOUSTON METROPOLITAN AREA OVER FOUR DECADES AS A LEADING AND 
           INFLUENTIAL JOURNALIST FOR TELEVISION STATION KTRK

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 4, 2020

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Deborah Wrigley for 
the unparalleled service she has rendered to the residents of the 
Houston metropolitan area over the past 40 years as one of the area's 
leading journalists and to commend her example to young reporters on 
the fiduciary responsibility of all members of the Fourth Estate to 
understand and faithfully execute the responsibilities of civic 
education and governmental accountability reposed in them by the 
drafters of the First Amendment.
  Deborah Wrigley will be retiring this month after the completion of a 
42-year career in journalism, most recently with television station 
KTRK-TV.
  Deborah Wrigley graduated from the University of Houston with a 
degree from its prestigious English department initially did not plan a 
career in television but it is not surprising that she finally did 
given that her father was a leading Hollywood cinematographer and her 
mother loved literature.
  Deborah Wrigley was hired by KTRK-TV as a minority trainee in 1978 
and over the next 42 years reported on important events affecting or 
occurring in the Houston area as the city grew to become the largest 
city in Texas and the fourth largest in the nation.
  Deborah Wrigley reported live from Galveston, Texas throughout the 
night when Hurricane Alicia hit, risking driving off the Galveston 
seawall at the height of the storm to get the stories back to the 
station.
  Deborah Wrigley loved covering politics, from City Hall to the Texas 
Legislature, national stories and neighborhood issues, hurricanes and 
other natural disasters, including the Mexico City earthquake in 1985 
for which she received a Headliner Club award.
  Deborah Wrigley never forgot or lost sight of the fact that another 
important role of the print and electronic media is to serve the 
people, to illuminate their struggles and problems and achievements; 
she knows Houston because she always listened to its people and their 
concerns and tirelessly worked to bring attention to the need to find 
solutions.
  Deborah Wrigley's final stories involved the work on the frontlines 
of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, such as efforts to bring testing to 
underserved communities, which she understood would save thousands of 
lives.
  Not only was Deborah Wrigley an eye-witness to many historic events, 
she made history of her own by becoming the longest-serving female 
television news reporter ever in Houston and one of the longest serving 
in the history of the country.
  Deborah Wrigley has often expressed how grateful she is to those who 
helped her through it all, from the people she interviewed to the 
audiences who watched and trusted her to deliver the news fairly and 
accurately.
  Madam Speaker, I take great pride in recognizing and honoring Deborah 
Wrigley whose extraordinary career and commitment to serving her 
community through delivering the news fully and fairly has helped make 
our nation better on its inexorable march toward becoming a more 
perfect union.

                          ____________________