[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 4653-4654]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            IN HONOR OF MRS. EUNICE ELIZABETH ADAIR TINGLING

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 19, 2016

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life, legacy, 
and work of Eunice Elizabeth Adair Tingling; who was a well-known 
resident of Harlem and Washington

[[Page 4654]]

Heights. On Friday, February 19, Eunice passed away after living a full 
life well-lived.
  Eunice Elizabeth Adair was born January 4, 1919 in Anderson, South 
Carolina to Margaret Iola Jones, a third generation schoolteacher and 
Arthur Aton Adair, a Presbyterian Sunday school missionary. She was the 
second of four children and first of two girls. Together with her 
siblings, older brother Arthur Eugene (later a Presbyterian minister), 
and younger siblings Mary Rose (who became a teacher), and Joseph 
Arthur (who became both a minister and a teacher), she lived a busy, 
active life full of learning, music, family, church and travel. Eunice 
has a proud and extensively documented family history. She was the 
granddaughter of formerly enslaved Mary Magdalene Bomar who taught 
school for 60 years & Allen Augustus Jones, also formerly enslaved, who 
graduated from Maryville College in 1871.
  Together they traveled the south as Presbyterian missionaries after 
their marriage, organizing schools and churches, teaching other newly 
freed blacks to read and write, raising 10 children, all of whom in 
turn went to college. While teaching at Brainerd Institute, a unique 
historic institution created from a former Freedman's school, later 
taken over by the Presbyterian Church, one of their daughters, Margaret 
Iola, met and married fellow teacher, Arthur Aton Adair, a union that 
produced Eunice and her three siblings. When Eunice was 12, her father 
died. Despite Arthur Aton's untimely death from pneumonia, her mother 
ensured that all four of the children went on to finish college, 
graduating with Joe, the youngest.
  Eunice attended Brainerd Institute right across the street from her 
home in Chester, SC, where her parents had taught. It was there that 
her love of music was further nurtured into a lifelong love. After 
graduating from Brainerd at 16, Eunice attended Barber-Scotia Junior 
College in Concord, NC, then attended Knoxville College, graduating 
with a major in elementary education and minoring in music. On her way 
north, she stopped over in Washington, DC during WWII, and got a 
government job (after failing the typing test), working in the Food 
Stamp Program.
  She eventually ended up in Harlem, helping her big brother Gene set 
up a day care program at Mt. Morris, the Presbyterian Church he was 
rejuvenating in central Harlem. A disastrous first date resulted in her 
meeting his brother, and Eunice was introduced to Milton Francis 
Tingling, a 1st-generation American of Jamaican parentage, aspiring 
statesman and law student that she met at an Episcopalian youth dance. 
They married on November 24, 1950.
  This union produced three children: Michele, Milton, and Steven. 
Prior to the birth of her first child, Michele, Eunice obtained her 
Masters Degree in Education from Columbia University Teachers College 
on February 28, 1951. Milton and Eunice settled in NYC, raising and 
educating their three children. Eunice began teaching in NYC public 
schools, and Milton began practicing as an attorney. She was a founding 
member and historian for Barristers' Spouses of NY; an elder in Mt. 
Morris-Ascension Presbyterian Church; former board member & chair of 
Arthur Eugene & Thelma Davidson Adair Community Life Center; also 
helped build & was a member of innumerable community & neighborhood 
organizations.
  Milton preceded Eunice in death on June 9, 1987. Eunice helped her 
husband get elected as a judge of the Civil Court of the City of NY in 
1982. In 1996, she then assisted her son Milton Adair in his election 
to Civil Court of the City of NY in 1996, then, again in 2000 when 
Milton was elected to the Supreme Court. In 2014, Eunice attended the 
induction of her son, Milton, at the swearing-in as the first black 
county clerk in the history of NY State. Eunice was a warrior for God, 
her family and her church. This petite, quiet, modest, unassuming but 
powerful woman lived a full life, and was truly a role model for the 
thousands of women and men whose lives she touched.
  Eunice passed on February 19, 2016, at home, surrounded by family per 
her wishes. She is survived by children Michele, Milton, & Steven; son-
in-law Rick; daughters-in-law Carolyn (Milton), Tonja (Milton), 
Rochelle (Steve), & Lisa (Milton); granddaughters Aija Mai Tingling, 
Candyce Vines, Nzingha Michele (Carlos) & Jasmine (Langston) Tingling-
Clemmons; grandsons Toussaint L'Ouverture & Langston Mandela Tingling-
Clemmons; Milton Jordan (Tai), Marcus Jamal & Steven Joshua Tingling; 
great-grands Zora Ann Tingling-Clemmons, Malcolm & Zayed Monadel 
Coleman-Tingling-Clemmons; sisters-in-law Thelma (Eugene) & Justine 
(Joseph); nephews Robert, Richard, & Maurice; nieces Daisy and Cindy 
(Rob); dozens of cousins, great-nieces, great-nephews; and multitudes 
of friends who were family.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that you and my distinguished colleagues join me 
in recognizing Mrs. Eunice Elizabeth Adair Tingling. Great matriarchs 
like Mother Tingling are precious gifts we temporarily have in this 
world, but their caring assistance, contributions and accomplishments 
are far remembered and everlasting.

                          ____________________