[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 193 (Wednesday, November 3, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S7690]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Remembering Jean Rounds

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, let me begin this morning by saying how 
sorry we are to hear the news about the loss of the former First Lady 
Jean Rounds of the State of South Dakota.
  Mike and Jean have been friends of ours for many, many years. I was 
involved in Senator Rounds' first campaign for office when he ran for 
State Senate back in 1990. I have known Jean since I worked in the 
administration of late Governor George Mickelson along with her at the 
Department of Transportation, and I just can't tell you what a loss it 
is for the State of South Dakota.
  She was an individual who carried herself with incredible grace, 
always kind, had a humility about her that I think people just found 
infectious. She was very down-to-earth. She never lost that. As a First 
Lady, she conducted herself in a way that represented a great model for 
the State of South Dakota, both in her character and her conduct. The 
style, the way in which she has served as First Lady, is something that 
I think made every South Dakotan proud.
  So, today, along with all South Dakotans, Kimberley and I mourn her 
loss. We lift up the Rounds family in our prayers, and I hope and pray 
that through this time they will feel God's grace and comfort in new 
and profound ways. But just a tremendous loss, and I know for my 
colleague Mike Rounds, who has been a great partner of mine--we have 
been involved in politics together now, in South Dakota, for over 30 
years--that he, too, is going to need our support and our prayers in 
the days ahead.
  This is a tough job under ordinary circumstances, but with the burden 
that he has been and will be carrying now into the future, it is going 
to be really important that we do everything we can to support him and 
stand with him, and today especially with him and his family.