[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Page 24256]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     RETIREMENT OF TINKER ST. CLAIR

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is a privilege to take this 
opportunity to pay tribute to Tinker St. Clair, who is retiring at the 
end of this year after 21 years of outstanding service to the Senate as 
doorkeeper.
  Tinker goes back many many years with the Kennedy family. In a sense, 
I inherited Tinker from my brothers. At the time of the 1960 
Presidential campaign, Tinker was active in Democratic Party politics 
in McDowell County in the heart of coal country in West Virginia. 
Tinker supported Jack in the key West Virginia Presidential Primary 
that year, and he campaigned effectively for my brother throughout 
southern West Virginia. Jack won a dramatic victory in that primary, 
and it put him solidly on the road to the White House. So it's fair to 
say that the New Frontier was born right there in West Virginia, and 
Tinker St. Clair was very much a part of that victory.
  Tinker was also there for my brother Robert Kennedy in his 
Presidential campaign in 1968.
  For the past 21 years in the Senate, Tinker has been a great friend 
of mine as well, and a great friend of many other Senators on both 
sides of the aisle.
  Day in and day out on the Senate floor, Tinker's welcoming smile and 
wonderful personality have warmed our hearts and minds. He is often 
here with us, sitting in the back of the Chamber, listening intently to 
our debates, offering an encouraging word when we arrive and when we 
finish speaking, reminiscing about past days in the Senate and past 
campaigns in West Virginia, telling us with pride about his children, 
his grandchildren, and in recent years, his great-grandchildren.
  When Tinker leaves us this year, he will leave a place in our hearts 
that will be impossible to fill. But as he said the other day, he feels 
it is time, as the West Virginia mountaineer he's always been, to sit 
on the porch and enjoy his family.
  As this session of Congress comes to an end, I express my warmest 
wishes to Tinker for a long and happy and healthy retirement. He has 
surely earned it. He has served West Virginia well, he has served the 
Senate well, and he has served the Nation well, and we will miss him 
very very much.

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