[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 11886]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       IN MEMORY OF CORINNE CONTE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 6, 2009

  Mr. MARKEY of Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the 
memory of Mrs. Corinne Louise Conte, wife of our former colleague, the 
late Congressman Silvio Conte, who died on April 28, 2009.
  Corinne was born on January 24, 1922, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 
to Charles and Kathleen Clemente Duval. As a teenager, she was a 
champion swimmer, winning the New England Championship for Breast 
Stroke Swimming at age 13. Following graduation from Pittsfield High 
School and St. Luke's School of Nursing in Pittsfield, Corinne served 
as a nurse in the Navy during World War II where she met her future 
husband, the late Congressman Silvio O. Conte when he was in the 
Seabees and recovering from an illness.
  Corinne and Silvio were married in Pittsfield on November 8, 1947. 
After Silvio was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1958, Corinne moved to 
Bethesda, Maryland, where she raised their four children. While in the 
Washington, D.C. area, she worked as a real estate agent and was an 
active partner in her husband's political campaigns. Corinne met every 
U.S. President from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George H.W. Bush, and many 
of the world's leaders from the 1950s through the early 1990s. She also 
danced with Lyndon B. Johnson at his Inaugural Ball and served on 
President George H.W. Bush's special Committee on Mental Health in the 
late 1980s.
  Corinne was an avid Red Sox fan and was very thankful that she lived 
to see the ``Curse of the Bambino'' broken. She was committed to her 
Catholic faith and was a daily communicant for years at Little Flower 
Roman Catholic Church in Bethesda, Maryland, as well as Notre Dame 
Roman Catholic Church and St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, both in 
Pittsfield. In her younger years, she had a private pilot's license. 
But, most of all, Corinne loved to play cards on a daily basis while 
living with her daughter in Mill Valley. She enjoyed a last game with 
her children a few days before her death, which she won, decisively.
  Corinne was a friendly and cheerful person who was loved by everyone 
who knew her. She had a remarkable and full life, and I extend my 
condolences to the family on her passing.

                          ____________________