[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 124 (Tuesday, July 26, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E781]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        CONGRATULATING MEMPHIS BROADCAST JOURNALIST MEARL PURVIS

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                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 26, 2022

  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a television 
reporter and anchor Mearl Purvis, revered throughout the Memphis area. 
After more than 30 years on television and 18 years on the Fox 13 news 
desk, Mearl Purvis will anchor her final newscasts on July 29. I first 
met Mearl as a state senator, and I found her thoughtful and tenacious 
reporting useful to the public's understanding of important issues. 
Mearl graduated from Jackson State University and worked as a reporter 
and anchor in Charlotte, North Carolina; New Haven, Connecticut; 
Jackson, Mississippi, and Nashville before moving to Memphis in 1992. 
On her first day at WMC, she was thoughtfully covering a proposed state 
income tax and major improvements to Memphis International Airport. In 
2004, Mearl moved across town to the Fox 13 anchor desk, where she has 
been involved in major local news. As a reporter and speaker, she has 
shared a stage with world leaders including Desmond Tutu, Mikhail 
Gorbachev, and U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Mearl has 
won eight Regional Emmy Awards, the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award, 
the equally prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and J.C. Penney 
Missouri Award. A standout supporter in private life for her community, 
Mearl is an active volunteer for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater 
Memphis, a supporter of Porter Leath and Bridges USA. She is also a 
Board of Visitors member of the University of Tennessee Health Science 
Center. As a mother, Mearl also has invested quality time in Memphis 
elementary schools reading to children, a cause about which she is 
passionate. I commend my friend Mearl for her service to our community 
and wish her all the best in retirement.

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