[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5643]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        SALUTE TO DOTTIE ASHLEY

 Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, I wish to congratulate Dottie 
Ashley for receiving the prestigious Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Award 
from the South Carolina Arts Commission. As a long-time arts writer for 
my hometown newspaper, the Post and Courier, Dottie has done as much to 
promote cultural life in Charleston for the last decade as anyone in 
our city.
  This is an honor well deserved. I ask to print in the Record an 
excerpt of a recent Post and Courier article, so that all my colleagues 
can see the accomplishments of this wonderful southern lady.
  The article follows:

             [From the Post and Courier, February 27, 2003]

Local Artist, Arts Writer, Cultural Affairs Office Among Verner Winners

                            (By Dave Munday)

       Dottie Ashley has been at the Post and Courier since 1991, 
     following 15 years at The State newspaper. She has covered 
     the Spoleto Festival since it started, the commissioners 
     said. They also noted that she: Won a fellowship to the 
     Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut to review new 
     plays; won a dance critics' fellowship to Russia to observe 
     the classic Vaganova method of teaching ballet; won the 
     American Dance Festival Critics' Award to Duke University; 
     was chosen by the Partners of the Americas to represent the 
     state in South America in 1982 and 1984.
       The Columbia Record won a Verner Award in 1981 when Ashley 
     was arts editor, and The Post and Courier won the award in 
     1994 when she was chief arts writer.
       ``Her reviews and weekly Arts in her Charleston column 
     offer comprehensive, sensitive coverage of the Charleston 
     area's arts and cultural life, and her in-depth reviews of 
     New York theater have expanded audiences for theater by all 
     readers,'' the commissioners said in a statement.

                          ____________________