[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 24450-24451]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    HONORING MARY AND BILL KIRCHNER

 Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I honor two of my constituents on 
a very special and rare milestone. Later this month, Mary and Bill 
Kirchner of Atlanta will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

[[Page 24451]]

  Mary and Bill were married on September 28, 1957, in Grosse Pointe, 
MI, bringing together two of that city's longtime families--the 
Fitzsimons and the Kirchners. The next 50 years took Mary and Bill from 
Michigan to South Carolina and finally to Georgia, where they have 
lived since 1988.
  Bill was a homebuilder in Michigan and on Hilton Head Island, SC, and 
later started his own property rental business on the island. Mary 
started her own successful business on Hilton Head called The Welcome 
Mat, then switched careers and put her salesmanship to good use selling 
real estate. When they moved to Atlanta, Mary and Bill decided to try 
an entirely new business venture by opening an antique consignment 
shop. Sixteen years later, Now & Again remains a beautiful and popular 
shop in Buckhead. In fact, my wife Dianne has been a customer. Although 
they have certainly earned the right to retire, Mary and Bill still run 
their shop 6 days a week with the help of a great staff.
  While their professional lives have been an adventure, Mary and Bill 
made their biggest life-changing decision early on in their marriage. 
On a chilly February day in 1964, a nervous Mary and Bill arrived at an 
adoption agency in Michigan hoping to hear that they would be allowed 
to adopt a baby. Instead, the agency asked if Mary and Bill would like 
to go home with 6-month-old twin girls. The shocked couple said yes and 
forever changed the lives of those twins, Sarah and Joan, for the 
better.
  Their daughter Sarah is now married to Stephen Midas and works as a 
stay-at-home mom to four children in Chesapeake, VA, and also does some 
bookkeeping for Mary and Bill's shop. Their daughter Joan and her 
daughter live in Washington, DC, and Joan has gone from covering 
politics as an AP reporter in Atlanta to now working for some of those 
same elected officials she used to cover. I happen to be one of those, 
and Joan now serves on my staff in Washington. I know Mary and Bill are 
very proud of both their daughters.
  I join with Joan, Sarah, Stephen and their children--Alex, Ben, Anna, 
Josie and Isabel--in congratulating Mary and Bill Kirchner on reaching 
their golden anniversary. Their marriage and their commitment to each 
other is an inspiration to us all.

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