[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 53 (Thursday, March 23, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H1396-H1397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              RECOGNIZING LESTER GIBBS UPON HIS RETIREMENT

  (Mr. BURCHETT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURCHETT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor firefighter Les 
Gibbs on his retirement. Les is one of the best friends I have in the 
world, Mr. Speaker.
  When I was a single man, I would always enjoy going honky-tonking 
with Les because he didn't drink. Neither did I, and I knew I wasn't 
going to have to do anything. When we would go to the Cotton Eyed Joe, 
the ladies would be tripping over me and pushing me out of way to get 
in line to dance with Les.
  Les has always been a good friend to me, and my parents loved him, 
too. When I would ask him to go eat pizza with me, he would always ask: 
``Are Charlie and Joyce going?'' It was always clear to me that they 
ranked a little bit higher than me on his list, and that was okay 
because I had very cool parents. He loved them right up until the end, 
and he was the man who actually carried my momma out of the nursing 
home when she died.
  You could always count on his motorcycle to run, and you could always 
count on mine to break down. When I got a new bike, which was actually 
a new bike for me but old for anybody else, he would say, ``Oh, I got a 
new rope,'' because he knew he was going to have to pull it. That was a 
true statement.
  I was there on the day he was sworn in as a firefighter in the city 
of Knoxville, and I wish I could be in Tennessee instead of Washington 
when he retires. I am hoping that my beautiful wife, Kelly, and 
daughter, Isabel, will be there. They love Lester. He has always been 
good to me and my folks and the community around him. I can't thank him 
enough for that.
  He has been a great friend to me, and he has been a better 
firefighter. He has been a great friend to hundreds, if not thousands, 
of other people. I wish him nothing but good times in retirement.
  Thank you for everything, Lester, you have done for me and my family, 
brother. You are very much loved.

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