[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 18482-18483]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING THE LIFE OF JOE KARY WESTMORELAND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, I stand to pay tribute to an outstanding and 
distinguished human being, Joe Kary Westmoreland, from my district who 
died just recently.

[[Page 18483]]

  Joe began his musical career by singing and playing the piano at a 
very early age in New Morning Star Baptist Church. After graduating 
from Booker T. Washington High School, he moved to Los Angeles to 
continue his education. He attended Los Angeles City College and the 
University of California at Los Angeles where he earned a bachelor's 
degree in 1981.

                              {time}  1415

  In 2000, Joe received a doctoral degree from the Pentecostal Bible 
College, West Coast Campus.
  Joe taught choral music at Duarte High School, Occidental College, 
and UCLA. For over a quarter of a century, he served the First African 
Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, many of these years as 
Minister of Music. Since 1976, his gospel music compositions have been 
presented in over 100 concerts by major orchestras and two films, Music 
in Time and Zubin Rocks Gospel, and are in public libraries around the 
country. One aired on three segments of CBS' 60 Minutes.
  The North Carolina Symphony and Interdenominational Choir performed 
seven of Joe's compositions at the Shaw University Heritage Festival, 
from 1977 through 1980. He conceived and helped produce the noted, 
Hallelujah Concert: A Tribute to Gospel Music, held at the Great 
Western Forum in Inglewood, California. Joe was the first composer of 
gospel music to have his works performed by Zubin Mehta and the Los 
Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the New York Philharmonic 
Orchestra.
  In 1982, Joe was commissioned by the Albany Symphony to write a 
gospel mass. This music was also performed by the Utah Symphony 
Orchestra in 1983. And in 1987, together with Charles May, he wrote the 
gospel opera, Job, which starred Reverend Daryl Coley and the First AME 
Freedom Choir. It was performed again in 1988 for the Los Angeles 
Festival and for the AME General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.
  His credits go on and on in the area of music and gospel and bringing 
the two together. He wrote the gospel opera, Jezebel, which was 
performed in the Vision Theater in Los Angeles for a full month. His 
musical talents have not been unrewarded, and he has received every 
single award across the board.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the kind of citizen that we need more of. He 
leaves a tremendous legacy in music and song but, most of all, in 
spirituality. And I want to extend my sympathy to his wife who stood by 
him all of those years, through an automobile accident, through several 
strokes and heart attacks, but he was still able to write and perform. 
He had been married to his wife for 39 years.
  We pay tribute to his spirit, to his life, and we wish him a rest 
that is well-deserved in the hands of our Lord.

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