[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 4267-4268]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING MRS. SARAH DAILEY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 13, 2016

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, this month and all this 
month I rise to give honor to a member of my district whom most people 
don't know but need to know. So today, I rise to honor Mrs. Sarah 
Dailey of Charleston, Mississippi located in Tallahatchie County, 
Mississippi.
  Humble and Challenging Beginnings: Sarah was born a couple of years 
before the Great Depression and has to her credit the skill of survival 
and the will to give and gain in all aspects of human life. Her mother 
passed away when she and her siblings were still too young to care for 
themselves, so all of them to some degree had to grow up sooner than 
expected. Her oldest brother was the first to grow up fast by assisting 
their father by helping provide for the family. The family relocated 
from the Valley Road, which is south of the town of Charleston to North 
Creek Road. There Sarah would not only grow up but it became the place 
where she reared her own family.
  ``It takes a village to raise a family'' was the code of the old 
days. Since the family was being led by Sarah's father and brother, the 
older women in the community took Sarah and her sisters under their 
wings, teaching them those things that women must know and do like 
managing the home, cleaning the house, protecting each other as mothers 
do and personal care as a woman.
  She was very intelligent and therefore school work came easy. She 
excelled in all her subjects, with many awards, plaques, and 
certificates of recognition to support. Education was not a giving back 
during her day of growing up so when the opportunity came along it was 
treasured because it was seen as

[[Page 4268]]

the way to a better future. By the time she was old enough to be on her 
own, her father remarried and moved to St. Louis, MO, taking her 
younger sibling with him. But Sarah and the older sibling stayed on in 
Charleston to chart their own future using what they had learned from 
those around them about adult responsibilities.
  A Woman: Sarah met and married Mr. Walter Luther Dailey to become 
Mrs. Sarah Dailey. The couple made their home and raised their children 
on the family land, owned by her father and mother. Her motherly 
instincts and caring not only provided for her family but she became 
the caring provider for other family members. Mrs. Dailey, remembering 
her own personal feelings about growing up without her mother, put her 
personal goals on hold to be a mother to many.
  Mrs. Dailey eventually went to work after her children began school. 
She worked for the Charleston Clinic in Charleston, MS where she 
remained employed for twenty years until an accident forced her to stop 
working. Mrs. Dailey also became active in the Civil Rights Movement in 
the 1960s. She was a quiet, but a strong woman who was steadfast on 
making a difference. She supported her children when the East 
Tallahatchie School District was integrated. It was during this same 
time that her children along with other children involved in the 
movement were bused off to Parchman where some of the children were 
kept for almost a month.
  A historian by hobby and interest: Mrs. Daily became the go to person 
when someone wanted to know something about civil rights activities in 
Tallahatchie County in the 1960s. She has been interviewed by people as 
far away as London, England and has traveled with college professors 
and authors as they gathered information for books they were 
publishing.
  Mrs. Dailey continues to participate in community related activities 
and is always eager to support efforts that enhance Tallahatchie 
County, Mississippi. She is still an active member of the NAACP, having 
joined in the 1960s, nearly fifty years ago. Tallahatchie County and 
her children can be proud to be connected to this historian and unsung 
hero.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring, Mrs. Sarah 
Dailey, of the Mississippi Second Congressional District.

                          ____________________