[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13897-13898]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      TRIBUTE TO KATHARINE GRAHAM

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Madam President, I rise to speak today to pay tribute 
to the life and legend of Katharine Graham. It is as if the Washington 
Monument has fallen. It is as if the lights have gone out at the 
Smithsonian Institution or the lights have gone out at the Lincoln 
Memorial. I truly cannot imagine Washington without Kay Graham. She was 
a Washington institution, a very real person with a remarkable mix of 
qualities. Much has been said about her grace, her grit, her steel, her 
great intelligence.
  Kay Graham put those qualities into action. She lived an 
extraordinary life and left an indelible mark on our Nation.
  I know the Presiding Officer liked Kay Graham because she took 
chances. Perhaps one of the greatest chances she took was when she 
actually took the helm of the Washington Post. Think about it. It was 
1963. It was not a time when women did bold things, power things, and 
they certainly were not on the rung of leadership to be CEOs. She was a 
woman who had faced an enormous personal tragedy. But as she reflected 
on where she was, where her family was, and where this newspaper was, 
she decided to take the helm.
  She was initially a reluctant leader, thrown into a leadership 
position because of the death of her husband. In embracing a leadership 
position, she set about hiring the very best people and giving them the 
independence to create one of the greatest newspapers in the world.
  She built a Fortune 500 company. And guess what. She became the first 
woman to head a Fortune 500 company.
  There were other firsts for Katharine Graham as well. She was the 
first director of the Associated Press, the first woman to lead the 
American Newspaper Publishers Association. I could go through a whole 
list.
  Now we take for granted that women will lead, that women will be in 
positions of leadership in the private sector and in the public sector. 
We now enjoy the fact that there are 13 women in the Senate. We have 
women as university presidents, Governors, and CEOs from dot coms to 
leaders of the old economy. Yet we cannot forget how hard it was to be 
the first because for the first and the only, it is also being the 
first and the lonely.

[[Page 13898]]

  What Katharine Graham did was involve other people in her life and in 
her family and in creating that institution.
  She was known for probably two great milestones in the history of 
journalism. She made the courageous decision to print the Pentagon 
Papers, which gave us this view on the Vietnam war, and then she 
rigorously pursued the Watergate story.
  It is said that men in the highest of power just cringed at the name 
of Katharine Graham, the Washington Post, Ben Bradlee and the team that 
he assembled. The highest levels of Government tried to suppress these 
stories. They used threats. They used intimidations. Katharine Graham 
did not flinch nor did she falter. The Washington Post and Kay Graham 
stood firm.
  Katharine Graham knew her role was to print the truth, no matter what 
the impact would be. She truly changed the course of history.
  Mrs. Graham's actions reinforced the fact that the freedom of speech 
cannot be abridged--especially by our own Government.
  While she hired gifted and talented reporters and editors, she 
herself did not take up the pen until 1997 when she wrote a book called 
her ``Personal History.'' Her autobiography struck a chord even with 
people who cared nothing about the ways of Washington. In it she had 
wonderful stories about historic figures. She also showed that she 
herself was a gifted and talented writer, going on to win the Pulitzer 
Prize. So much for being a shy, awkward debutante of 40 years before.
  What really resonated was the story about a woman who faced crises 
and confronted them with courage and dignity. I know the Presiding 
Officer has experienced some of the same. We all cheered when Kay won 
that Pulitzer Prize because we knew she deserved it and we were proud 
of her.
  I was deeply grateful for a chance she took on me. In 1986 I was 
running for the U.S. Senate. I was viewed by some as a long shot. The 
Washington insiders said I did not look the part, and they were not 
sure that I could act the part. But as history has shown, I got the 
part. One of the reasons I got the part was because of the endorsement 
of the Washington Post.
  I will be forever grateful to have gotten the Washington Post 
endorsement in both my primary and the general. Meg Greenfield--the 
wonderful and special friend, Meg Greenfield--felt that I had the 
qualities to become the first Democratic woman ever elected to the U.S. 
Senate in her own right.
  I just want to say that Kay Graham, this wonderful blue-blooded lady, 
welcomed a blue-collar spitfire. And for that I will always be 
grateful. When I came to the U.S. Senate, I came with her endorsement 
and her welcome. It is something I treasured in those years as she 
introduced me to people.
  She had me in her home. I had a chance to be at those great parties 
she had to essentially get started in my own life in Washington. But 
the story that I want to recall is one that is very special to me in 
which I participated with her. It was 1987. The late Pamela Harriman 
was asked to host a lunch at her home for Raisa Gorbachev to introduce 
her to ``women of distinction.'' Dobrynin had called Mrs. Harriman to 
host this luncheon. Mrs. Harriman called me. And guess who else was on 
the list? My colleague, Senator Nancy Kassebaum--there were only two of 
us in the Senate then--Kay Graham of the Washington Post, Sandra Day 
O'Connor, at that time the only woman on the Supreme Court, and Dr. 
Hanna Grey, the president of the University of Chicago.
  What an incredible lunch. First of all, we were the talk of 
Washington, and we were the talk of the world. Raisa was trying to woo 
America to show that Soviet women were smart and fashionable. And she 
chose as her venue the Pamela Harriman lunch.
  I tried to engage her, in her dissertation on what life was like on 
the collective farm, as two sociologists. We talked about life and 
times. But the hit of the lunch was Kay Graham and the way she engaged 
Raisa Gorbachev. Under Kay Graham's incredible graciousness, courtesy, 
manners, and charm was one ace investigative reporter. While the rest 
of us were talking and engaging in intellectual conversation, Mrs. 
Graham began to engage Mrs. Gorbachev in these kinds of questions: What 
is it like to be the functional equivalent of the First Lady in the 
Soviet Union? What was your surprise when you came to power? What do 
you find it like as in the life of a woman?
  I wish you could have heard the late Mrs. Gorbachev's answers. We saw 
a side of Raisa Gorbachev we didn't know: a woman who saw herself as a 
scholar, coming to power with a man who had been the head of the 
Department of Agriculture, that they were changing world history. She 
was shocked by the number of letters she received, the way the Soviet 
women had reached out to her, one on one.
  We heard that Raisa story because of the way Kay Graham talked to 
her. It was a very special afternoon. I got to know Mrs. Gorbachev a 
lot better. Do you know who else I got to know a lot better? Kay 
Graham. She had world leaders at her feet and at her side. But most of 
all, she had the gratitude of leaders who knew that at the Washington 
Post there was a great leader who was willing to meet with other 
leaders but, no matter what, she said to print the truth and call them 
the way she saw them.
  I am sorry that Kay Graham has been called to glory. God bless her, 
and may she rest in peace. She has left a legacy that should be a 
benchmark, a hallmark, and a torch for every other newspaper in 
America, for all of us who hold leadership, and for we women who are in 
power. May we be as gracious and as unflinching in our duties as Kay 
Graham.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Stabenow). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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