[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 12300]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                         TRIBUTE TO JERRY DYER

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                           HON. MARION BERRY

                              of arkansas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 8, 1999

  Mr. BERRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a man who was 
a dear friend of mine, Jerry Dyer.
  Jerry was a devoted and loving husband, father, son, brother and 
friend. His love was unconditional, just because you were there. He had 
his priorities in order. He was a good businessman but he knew that was 
not at the top of the list.
  He always greeted life and business with great good humor. He 
enriched every life he touched, especially children. Jerry was a good 
citizen, and it is appropriate that he was honored as ``Citizen of the 
Year'' by his community. It is the highest honor to be recognized by 
your friends and neighbors.
  I will always remember two stories Jerry loved to tell on himself. 
One about a man in Gillett that he loaned some money to buy some cows. 
The man bought the cows and they got out of the pasture one night, onto 
the highway and were destroyed by a truck. The man come in the bank the 
next morning and walked into Jerry's office and said ``banker they done 
run over our collateral.'' Jerry just laughed his special chuckle and 
said ``well let's see what we can do.''
  Jerry always worked hard to make his community a better place to 
live, work, and raise a family. We had been working together to improve 
main street in Gillett and one of the towns ``characters'' named 
``Doc'' purchased a vacant lot right in the middle of the business 
section of the street and put a rather dilapidated trailer there. Then 
he took the bath tub out of the trailer and set it in the front yard. 
Every one that drove by saw this. Doc was in the bank one day and 
Jerry, in his diplomatic way said to Doc (part of Doc's charm was lack 
of personal hygiene) ;``Doc what are you going to do with your bath 
tub?'' Doc says, ``I need that space to store my spare tires in, but if 
I was going to take a bath, I would want a bigger tub than that.''
  Again Jerry just laughed and started trying to improve things in 
another way.
  My friend Jim Ed Wampler said it best and it is the way we describe 
our very best in the wonderful place we call home, ``he was a good 
man.''
  I think that says it all.

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