[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8234]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO MINNIE BELLE McINTOSH

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 28, 2007

  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize one of my 
constituents, Minnie Belle McIntosh, who celebrates her 100th birthday 
on March 30, 2007.
  Minnie Belle McIntosh has led an extraordinary life. When she was 
only 4 years old, her mother died of tuberculosis, leaving her and her 
sister Anne as orphans to be shuttled between relatives in Mississippi 
and Texas. Despite this early hardship, the bright and lively Minnie 
Belle graduated from the Blue Mountain College boarding school and 
attended college at the Mississippi State College for Women, where she 
majored in math and physics. Her senior thesis on ``The Talking 
Machines'' included correspondence with Thomas Edison.
  After college, Minnie Belle took up the only occupation available to 
an educated woman in that region and became a schoolteacher. The drop 
in crop prices following World War I hit Mississippi particularly hard, 
but Roosevelt's New Deal legislation opened up new opportunities for 
its residents. Minnie Belle became an extension officer; her job was to 
inform rural families of the best ways to provide their children with 
good nutrition. Because of her gender, her employment was never stable, 
and she traveled from Minneapolis to California to Texas to Mississippi 
to perform her job, but her ``people skills'' made her an excellent 
social worker.
  During World War II Minnie Belle, like many other women, went to work 
in Washington, DC. She was employed by the Department of Agriculture, 
from which she retired in 1972.
  Her volunteer work in Maryland in recent years has been exemplary. 
The Shepherd's Table and The Clothes Closet were founded to feed and 
clothe the homeless, and Minnie Belle marshaled the efforts of some 50 
volunteers. Confronted with a mountain of donated clothes, she used the 
size measurements from a Sears catalogue to mark trousers and dresses, 
and she guided the clients with good humor and common sense. The 
success of The Shepherd's Table in Maryland and Montgomery County owes 
much to Minnie Belle McIntosh's involvement.
  At 85, Minnie Belle moved into a retirement community, Bedford Court 
in Silver Spring, Maryland, where she turned her attention to 
recycling. She quickly whipped the residents into shape, creating an 
army of recyclers, who dutifully washed out bottles and cans, separated 
paper trash from garbage, and happily signed up to be floor recycling 
monitors. She and Bedford Court are recipients of more than a half 
dozen awards recognizing their efforts.
  Her greatest asset, however, besides her persistence, is her interest 
in people and kindness to all. Even now, as she reaches 100 years, she 
knows everyone's name and story.
  On this special occasion, I urge my colleagues to join me in honoring 
Minnie Belle McIntosh on her 100th birthday and in recognizing her as a 
woman of great perseverance, kindness, and accomplishment. I am 
delighted to wish her a year of good health and happiness and to thank 
her for her wonderful contributions to our community.

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