[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Page 6729]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                        IN MEMORY OF BETTY TIMES

 Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, it is with both pride and sadness 
that I ask the Senate to pause briefly so that I may share a little of 
the remarkable life of Betty Times, a long-serving Marin County civil 
servant, political activist and human rights advocate, who died last 
Thursday after an 8-year battle with cancer.
  Betty Times was born 62 years ago in Louisiana, and moved at age 5 to 
Marin City where her father worked at the Marinship shipyard in 
Sausalito. Mrs. Times lived in and enriched the community of Marin City 
and the County of Marin for 56 years.
  She leaves a lasting legacy of community service that includes 14 
years as head of Marin County's Citizens Service Office, 18 years on 
the Sausalito School Board, one term on the Marin General Hospital 
district board, and countless years of leadership in Marin City, as a 
mother of five, a mentor, chairman of the board of the Community 
Development Corporation and as executive director of the Marin City 
Project.
  I first got to know Betty more than 20 years ago when I served as a 
Marin County supervisor, and we were both founding members of the local 
chapter of the National Women's Political Caucus. She also served as 
vice president of the national NWPC.
  Betty somehow also found the time to serve as an active member of the 
Democratic Party, and was a longtime member of the State and local 
Democratic Central Committees as well as a 1976 delegate to the 
Democratic National Convention. In 1991, she was elected to the Marin 
Women's Hall of Fame.
  Just this February and as her health was failing, Betty was honored 
for her years of service by the Marin County Grass Roots Leadership 
Network. She is also the recipient of the Martin Luther King 
Humanitarian Award from the Marin County Human Rights Commission.
  I think Betty's daughter, Ida, put it best when she said: ``My mother 
was the strongest person I know. She instilled very strong values in 
all of us, even her grandchildren. She was my best friend, and we were 
all incredibly proud of her. Her impact in this county rippled 
throughout the State.''
  I am a better person for having known and worked with Betty Times. I 
extend my sincere condolences to Betty's husband John, her mother Alice 
Coleman, and to her large and loving family.

                          ____________________