Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act. This legislation will help us take great strides in reducing the loss of life and property from windstorms.

We in North Carolina know all too well how devastating tropical storms and hurricanes can be. While flooding from hurricanes is often the culprit for the majority of the deaths, the winds generated from these storms range from 74 to 155 miles an hour or more, indiscriminately wreaking havoc to lives and property wherever they strike.

The National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act will develop windstorm impact reduction projects that could lead to new designs and construction practices that could mitigate, if not withstand, the force and damage generated by these high windstorms. This is an important piece of legislation, which I encourage all Members to support.

I want to congratulate the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moore) for his work and leadership on this issue. Kansas does not have the hurricane problems that my State has, but I know its position in the middle of Tornado Alley makes it a life-and-death issue for the State of Kansas. So I thank the gentleman.

As a Member of the House Committee on Science, the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moore) has been fighting to improve research in wind- related hazards for years. I have been proud to cosponsor and support very similar legislation that he introduced both in this Congress and during the 107th Congress.

Very simply, this legislation will save lives in North Carolina, in Kansas and throughout this country. I congratulate my friend and colleague on his success in this effort, and urge my colleagues to vote for H.R. 3980.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

On behalf of my North Carolina farm families, I rise today to support H.R. 4520. Since 1997, tobacco quota has been cut by more than 50 percent in tobacco-growing regions. Consequently, farm families have seen their income cut by more than half. Widows and widowers, who use quota rents as their 401(k)s, have likewise seen their income fall.

I ask Members, could they survive if their salary had been permanently cut by 50 percent or more? I think we know the answer to that: It would be very difficult.

The time for action is running out. We need to jump-start the process of reforming the current program, and we need to do it now. H.R. 4520 accomplishes this by including provisions for a tobacco buyout, and this is not a buyout for the companies, it is for the small farmers and the allotment holders across the tobacco-growing regions.

They have finally decided it is time for a change. They have had a hard time getting there, but the consequences they see is if they do not this year, they could face as much as a 30 percent cut this fall because of foreign tobacco flooding into America. This really is about helping people who work every day in the fields of this country making a living.

On the underlying bill, I would have preferred the approach of the Crane-Rangel bill, which I cosponsored, but beggars cannot be choosers. I thank the distinguished gentleman from California, chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, for including the buyout provision in his bill. But I caution the gentleman, when it goes to conference with the Senate, remember the advice of the ancient Spartan women who gave this advice to their sons before battle, ``Come back with your shield, or come back on it.''

Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman from California, come back with this buyout or do not come back.

I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people of the Second District of North Carolina, I rise to pay my respects to the late Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States of America. My wife, Faye, and I join all North Carolinians and all Americans in expressing our condolences to former First Lady Nancy Reagan and the entire Reagan family.

Ronald W. Reagan served two terms in our Nation's highest office after winning overwhelming margins of victory in the Presidential elections of 1980 and 1984. His time in office was marked by renewed pride in America, and he is to be commended for his steadfast devotion to liberalization from the oppression of communism and that vicious rule in nations throughout the world.

Regardless of one's position on President Reagan's policies and politics, all Americans remember his warmth of spirit and the respectful manner in which he engaged in public debate. This approach kept acrimony to a healthy minimum even when conflicting views on vitally important issues were debated in this House and in this city. That example stands in marked contrast to the divisiveness and bitter partisanship we have too often witnessed since his Presidency.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, all Americans stand in solidarity and salute Nancy

Reagan and the whole Reagan family for the dignity and grace that they have displayed through the former President's long and difficult struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Their struggle has been our struggle, for it reminds us of the afflictions millions of Americans face in anonymity every day. The Federal Government must act to ease this needless suffering by increasing research funding and modernizing regulations to allow for potentially lifesaving research using stem cells and other medical techniques. The pain on Mrs. Reagan's face should prod the conscience of this country to end the cruel victimization of stricken patients who require potentially lifesaving research.

In conclusion, the passing of President Reagan closes an important chapter in American history. As the leaders of the 20th century pass from the scene, we must endeavor to carry on their legacy of progress at home and American leadership in the world. On behalf of the people of North Carolina, I rise today to say, rest in peace, Mr. President.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

To all of you, let me thank you. As the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus) has shared with you, prior to my coming to Washington, I had the distinct privilege of being the State superintendent of schools for the State of North Carolina. I consider that a high privilege because I got to work with wonderful young folks like you every day. And I was seated back there looking at the backs of your heads and said, I really want to see your faces because I have seen you in here from day to day.

I want to associate myself with my colleagues' comments. I may repeat some of them, and I will be brief, but I do not want to. The truth is as they have said, and Lord knows how many commencement speeches I have made and groups I have spoken to, you are the future. You will move on the stage very quickly. And you will finish the work. It may be here in this Chamber or in the State legislative chamber or as a doctor, lawyer, preacher, teacher, whatever it may be. You will finish the work that others have started. And always remember that.

I think it is good to remember that there are new ideas from time to time, and we have breakthroughs, but the greatest contributions are made by those who are willing to keep their hands on the steady plow, as we say in rural North Carolina, and you plow a straight furrow. In other words, you do the right thing. You were made out of the right stuff, and we are awful proud of you.

I only wish that every student in America could have the same experiences that you have had for the last number of weeks you have been here. We would have a lot better country because they would go home with a different understanding of Washington, DC.

I started to ask for a show of hands, but I will not do it, of how many of you when you came to Washington, this was the first time you had ever been to Washington. And if that is not true, this would be the first class we have had that that is not true of. For some of you, it may be the very first time you have been away from home for an extended period of time. You have adapted and adjusted to that.

All of us can remember when we went away to camp for the first time, and a week is a long time, and you have been gone for a week and you have adapted well. You brought your school books with you. You were not sure how in the world you were going to handle all of that, right? But you did and you did a heck of a job, and we are proud of you.

You have already shown that you can achieve before you came and you have added to that knowledge. So let me thank you for coming. I have full confidence in whatever you choose to do you will do well because you have already done well.

Let me say to Melissa Eddy, who is from my congressional district, the Second District of North Carolina, we are proud of you. We are glad to have you here this week. And for all of you as you leave this week, including you, Melissa, when you leave here tomorrow and when you head home, you are going to get a little vacation probably. And depending on whether you are going to college or back to high school, it is going to be a short summer because some schools start pretty quick, college and otherwise.

This has already been shared with you, but I want to share it with you again, that is, if you have not gotten everyone's mailing addresses and their known numbers and e-mails, get it and keep it. Your paths will cross again, sometime sooner than you think.

Stay in touch. There are not many places you will ever go again in your life that you will spend and share the time you have shared one with another, with people all across America from virtually every State and have the opportunity to share ideas, whether you agree or disagree and have the kind of positive discourse and great understanding and learning you have had here.

Have a safe trip home. Have a great summer. God bless all of you because you are special, special folks. I wish you all the luck in the world in whatever you choose to do.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 213, I was unavoidably detained and missed voting on H.J. Res. 83. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. Speaker, it is altogether fitting and proper that the U.S. House of Representatives holds this moment of silence on behalf of our fallen warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan. On the last legislative day before America observes Memorial Day, it is appropriate for us to pause from our business to pay our respects to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in those important and difficult theatres of war.

As the Representative of North Carolina's Second Congressional District, I have the honor of serving the military families of the Army's Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, and numerous National Guard and Reserve units. I have observed our troops training for combat, and I have visited soldiers wounded in the battlefield in their recovery at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC.

Last month, I had the opportunity to travel to Iraq to witness firsthand the daily struggle our soldiers wage in that war-torn country. The work they are doing is vitally important to bring peace and stability in Iraq and allow for the growth of a just and open democracy in a place that has never really known such conditions that we take for granted. Previously, I visited Afghanistan to investigate our progress in taking the war against terrorism into the sanctuary of the terrorists. Our troops are dedicated, professional and motivated by their love of America and the folks back home who pray for their safety and their speedy return.

Mr. Speaker, this moment of silence on behalf of our fallen heroes is an important opportunity to state once and for all that the American people and the Congress of the United States strongly support our men and women in the Armed Forces.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on this administration to take action now to reduce the price of gasoline in this country. Across my district folks are suffering painfully from the skyrocketing fuel costs to record levels. Yet this administration has failed to provide relief.

Last month, OPEC cut production of crude oil by 2 million barrels, and the national average price for a gallon of gasoline has risen to more than $2 a gallon. Yet the administration has done nothing to get OPEC to open the spigots back up.

North Carolina's economy is hurting. A truck driver approached me at church on Sunday and complained that his business is suffering because of the record high fuel prices. These gas prices will make the administration's record on job growth even worse while the big oil companies laugh all the way to the bank.

First quarter profits for Conoco-Phillips went up 44 percent. Exxon- Mobil reported a 125 percent increase. Chevron-Texaco hit a gusher with a 294 percent increase.

Mr. Speaker, I call on the White House and the administration to get to work, to get OPEC and the big oil companies to lower gas prices now.

Mr. Speaker, for the past several years, I have worked with a bipartisan coalition of Members to pass critical tobacco buyout legislation on behalf of American tobacco farmers. Unfortunately, the House Republican leadership has opposed us at every turn.

This week, Senator John Kerry announced his support for tobacco buyout legislation. His support stands in stark contrast to comments made last week

by President Bush, who dismissed the crisis facing tobacco farm families by saying the current tobacco system does not need to be changed.

Since 1997, tobacco farmers have seen their income cut by over half. Thousands of farm families have been forced out of business. The entire economic background of rural southeast America has been crippled, yet the President says nothing needs to be changed.

Senator Kerry supports a buyout to revitalize our corner of rural America. A buyout would create tens of thousands of jobs in rural America, which are desperately needed.

Time is running out for our tobacco farmers. I call on the Republican leadership in the House and the Congress to follow Senator Kerry's leadership and pass the bipartisan tobacco buyout and restore hope to tobacco country.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to one of North Carolina's leading citizens, Mr. William I. ``Irvin'' Warren of the Harnett County community of Dunn.

Tomorrow evening, I will have the honor of presenting to Irvin the Distinguished Service Award from the Occoneecheee Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The award is to be presented in recognition of his ``Exemplary Public Service and Lifelong Fidelity to the Scouting Creed of Service to the Community.'' As a longtime leader of the Occoneechee Council, I can think of no individual more deserving of this award.

William I. Warren was born on June 2, 1942 in Sampson County, North Carolina, and like me, worked on his family tobacco farm growing up. He graduated from the Sampson County public schools and East Carolina University where he earned his bachelor's degree in education in 1964. He went on to get his master's degree at North Carolina State University, in my Congressional District, where he taught for 6 years.

In 1975, Mr. Warren took his life savings of $14,000 and founded Warren Oil Company, Inc., where he sold motor oils packaged in his name. Mr. Warren is now Chief Operating Officer of Warren Oil, having led the company for 29 years. The company, which formerly was housed in 5,000 feet of rental space, now owns and occupies more than one million square feet of warehouse space, storing more than fifty million gallons of oil. Currently, Warren Oil Company has locations in North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas and employs more than four hundred and fifty workers. Throughout the course of his career, Mr. Warren has increased the size of this local business from a small community business to the largest independent oil company in North America. Warren Oil Company, Inc. currently owns twenty U.S. registered trademarks and exports to more than twenty countries worldwide.

Throughout his successful career in business, William Warren has served our community in numerous capacities. He has served on the boards of the Betsey Johnson Regional Hospital, Dunn Area Chamber of Commerce, Standard Bank & Trust Company, Harnett County Industrial Development and the New Century Bank. He has been a member of the Masonic Lodge and Shrine Club for more than 30 years and is past Chairman of the Board of Directors for Divine Street United Methodist Church. As a community activist myself for more than thirty years, I know that whenever a good cause needs support, the first thought on folks' minds is, ``Call Irv.''

A proud family man, William I. Warren has two children, Wendy and Bill, five grandchildren, Reed, Colby, Jaimmy Warren, Morgan Spell and Benjamin Spell. The Warren Oil Company is truly a family business. Finally, Mr. Speaker, as the father of an Eagle Scout, it gives me great pleasure to present Boy Scouts of America's Distinguished Service Award to William I. ``Irvin'' Warren. And on behalf of the Congress of the United States and the people of North Carolina, let me offer my friend our heartfelt gratitude.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on the Bush administration and this Congress to live up to its promise on education.

Despite the White House's media event this week, the administration's own budget request for next year would cut $9.4 billion from the President's own No Child Left Behind Act. In the first 3 years under this new law, this administration has shorted America's schools by $27 billion. That is a pretty poor record and a failure of leadership.

This week, the White House claimed that the States have billions of dollars of unspent Federal education funds, as if there is a stack of money sitting on some bureaucrat's shelf. As the only former State school chief serving in this Congress, I can tell my colleagues that nothing could be farther from the truth. School officials are struggling to fill countless unmet needs for funding, and this administration's failure to provide our needed education funds is a crushing burden.

Democrats have a better way. I have introduced legislation to require full funding for No Child Left Behind. Democrats support school construction and helping local leaders build new schools, relieve overcrowding, reduce class sizes, and improve security. We must make sure every public school works to educate our children to meet the needs of the 21st century.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, Congress needs to live up to its promises made on education.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate a public servant of the elderly in North Carolina, May Marshbanks, and her recent acceptance of the George L. Maddox Award. This award honors individuals in North Carolina who have excelled in developing and implementing creative programs for older adults. The award symbolizes years of tireless effort on the part of Miss Marshbanks to provide much needed services to the elderly populace of Harnett County.

May Marshbanks, who is eighty-six years old, has directed the Harnett County aging program for 32 years since the inception of the Harnett County Council on Aging in 1971. This marked a second career for Ms. Marshbanks, who retired as a principal from the Chapel Hill school system and moved back to Harnett County. She has been a passionate advocate for the aging and elderly ever since.

Through her pioneering spirit, Ms. Marshbanks forged a path for the Council to develop into the Harnett County Department on Aging. Today, the Department delivers a number of important programs to the elderly including minor home repair, In-Home Aid, an Elderly Nutrition Program, and the Community Alternatives Program for Disabled Adults. The Department provides legal assistance to seniors. It also offers a transportation program to provide seniors the ability to live independently and to provide them access to medical and social services.

As one colleague stated, ``May Marshbanks is the Harnett County Department on Aging. The community sees her and the agency as synonymous.'' May Marshbanks has connected her life with others through noble causes, and her actions have effected hundreds of lives. She has provided needed services for older adults in Harnett County, informed local government officials of the needs of the elderly, and developed public and private cooperative partnerships among existing agencies and programs. I thank May for her service to the citizens of Harnett County. She truly is a compassionate person who makes good things happen.

Mr. Speaker, I say with all sincerity to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt), he brings a lot of common sense to this body.

Mr. Speaker, I was in business for a number of years before I came to Washington.

There is one thing that I learned very quickly. If we drive the debt up, soon enough we will go broke. As some of my folks at home will say, we cannot borrow ourselves rich. And we are trying to do that. And I do not think anyone in this body can believe we can keep running deficits this large.

I just ran some numbers on the material the gentleman provided us. Just going out to 2009, in 2004 a family of four spent about $4,380 on average in debt in this country. But by 2009 that will be $6,985 just using the current numbers. That is assuming, Mr. Speaker, that things do not change for the worse. That is using the best numbers I understand for the economy to grow and then no more tax cuts that are proposed in the current budget or revenue losses. That is a 59 percent increase in the debt load on families.

Today I was in two schools talking with children about the importance of reading, about their future, about how important it was to do the things right to make a difference, looking into those faces and thinking what a burden we are placing on them. It is a shame because my colleague from Maine is absolutely right. We are using borrowed money from our children to enjoy the good life on a credit card; and we are taking the Social Security trust funds from the seniors who are now waiting for the benefits and using that, and between those two issues, we are living the good life and we are not paying our way. We are not paying our way. And it is wrong any way we cut it. It would be wrong if we were doing it as Democrats, and it is absolutely wrong for our Republican colleagues to stand with a straight face and say we are giving them prosperity. Because I promise this: I was in business when I remember interest rates going through the roof, and I will promise tonight that this kind of policy is going to drive interest rates up again. And all the money that we are borrowing to feed this deficit, a large portion of it is coming from overseas.

It startles me and shocks me and baffles me, too. I am not really sure the American people understand that they are going to have the Chinese setting our interest rate at some point because they are buying a lot of this debt and a lot of our trading partners around the world. And ultimately we are going to have to meet that bill. When we look at the amount of debt today without any changes and where it is going to hit, I am not sure our colleagues or the people who might be watching us tonight know what PAYGO is. They do not know what it is. But I tell the Members what they do know. They know that we cannot spend more than we have. And they understand that, as many of the farmers in the gentleman's State and my State who have seen their tobacco allotments cut in half, there is one thing they know tonight: they are not spending as much this year as they spent 5 years ago, and they are not going to spend as much next year because they are going to have to cut their spending back to meet their revenues. What our colleagues tell us is that we can have it all. We can have it all.

We cannot have it all. If we do, our children are going to be the poorer for it. And this budget, if it comes back without a plan to balance on both ends, on revenues as well as expenditures, we

are doing an injustice to ourselves but a greater injustice to our children. And those children, I looked in their faces today. That is why they tell us we cannot build schools. We do not have the money. And yet we say to these children they are the ones we are going to depend on to build a bright future we want to see in the 21st century.

I thank the gentleman for bringing this to our attention tonight and for sharing with this body and with the people around this country, because they need to understand that this plan is headed for a train wreck. It may not be this year, it may not be next year, but it is coming. We cannot keep piling on debt and not paying the bills, and that is really what is happening.

And it is amazing to me that this administration in this short period of time will increase the debt at this level and this Congress has added to it. And the majority knows they have done it. They just do not want to stand up and meet their obligations. Because higher interest rates will eat away all the benefits that middle income and others have had. We may have lower interest rates today, but we let them add two points or three points, and that will happen. It may not be this month, it may not be this year, but I guarantee it will come in the next several years.

I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Speaker, I want to make sure I understand the gentleman and the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer). Is the gentleman saying the public debt is going to continue to increase?

Mr. Speaker, I have just a question, if I may, on clarification as we get ready to wind down, because I want to make sure I understand what the gentleman said earlier.

Did I understand the gentleman to say that President Bush inherited a projected $6.6 trillion surplus?

Whether that was accurate or not, I am not going to get into that.

Did he not also promise during the campaign when he came in office to protect Social Security and not invade it?

I thank the gentleman for his clarification. I think folks understand that.

Mr. Speaker, Carl Edward Lamm--a legendary pioneer in radio broadcasting will be honored on April 20 at the 2004 Distinguished Citizen Banquet of the Johnston Community College Foundation. Lamm is president and general manager of Radio Station WMPM in Smithfield, North Carolina.

Lamm, now in his 56th consecutive year as a full-time broadcaster, is sometimes referred to as the ``Voice of Eastern Carolina.'' His many awards have included induction into the North Carolina Broadcasters Hall of Fame and the awarding of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, North Carolina's top citizen award, by Governor James B. Hunt. He is one of the finest examples of North Carolina values in action.

Lamm, born in Spring Hope, North Carolina, dreamed early on of a career in radio. As a 17-year-old, he did his first broadcasting on Radio Station WEED in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, took time out to join the Navy for World War II service, and returned in 1946 to finish high school. He then enrolled in the National Academy of Broadcasting in Washington, DC to pursue his dream of becoming a broadcaster. Within a year, he was hired at Radio Station WCEC in Rocky Mount. He followed that with a position at WCKB in Dunn, North Carolina. In 1958, he became a co-owner of and full-time broadcaster for WMPM in Smithfield, a career that continues to this day.

It has been a labor of love for his adopted community. A national expert on country music, Lamm has one of the most extensive collections of historic country music in the United States. His station is considered a leader in the presentation of old time country music, bluegrass, and southern gospel music. During his long career, he also emceed a program for Radio Station WSM in Nashville, TN, interviewing Hank Snow, a member of the County Music Hall of Fame.

On his Smithfield station, Lamm's interests have ranged far and wide. He was the 1971 Sportscaster of the Year for the Raleigh Hot Stove League. For 25 years, he hosted a program about North Carolina lawmakers, ``Legislative Report to the People.'' He covered the Smithfield tobacco market for 54 years and from 1993 to 2000 was the sales supervisor of the market. Lamm has interviewed more than 500 major league baseball players and country music entertainers. Those interviews include Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Casey Stengel, Mickey Mantle, and Whitey Ford. Interviews with entertainers have included Hank Williams, Red Foley, Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff, and Kitty Wells.

Lamm, is a former president of the Smithfield Rotary Club. He initiated the annual ``Rotary Radio Day'' in 1971 that continues to this day. That event, it is estimated, has raised more than $100,000 for the Smithfield Rotary Club's community projects. The club honored him with one of its first Paul Harris Fellowship Awards. In 2003, the club established the Carl and Margie Lamm Scholarship, which will be awarded annually to a graduating senior at Smithfield-Selma High School.

Lamm was the first to broadcast the death of legendary Johnson County movie star, Ava Gardner, and was the natural voice to emcee the opening of the Ava Gardner Museum when it opened its new quarters in October, 2000.

Lamm taught a Sunday School Class at Beulah Baptist Church in Four Oaks for 48 consecutive years and now occasionally teaches the Evander Simpson Sunday School Class at First Baptist Church in Smithfield where he and his family are members.

Truly, Carl Lamm has been a unique man in a unique time in Johnson County. Through the radio, he has recorded the county's comings and goings, the births and deaths, the struggles and the triumphs, and the dreams of tomorrow.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday my original flight from my congressional district in North Carolina was canceled, forcing me to take a later flight. Therefore I was unavoidably detained and missed the following three votes: passage of H.R. 2584; passage of H.R. 3723; and passage of H.R. 3917.

Had I been present, I would have voted ``Yes'' on each of these rollcall votes. I ask unanimous consent that this statement be recorded in the appropriate place in the Congressional Record.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember a great North Carolinian, John Wesley Winters, Sr.

North Carolina and its capital city, Raleigh, lost one of its most outstanding citizens with the death of John Wesley Winters, Sr., on February 15. Mr. Winters was a builder, land developer, civil leader, and a pioneer in improving race relations in his city and State. He was a loyal Democrat and an innovative champion for human rights.

Mr. Winters worked as a milkman and airport skycap in his youth, saving his money with the goal of becoming a builder for southeast Raleigh's African American community. In 1957, he opened his home- building company and began building homes. Each year brought more houses. In the early 1960s he developed Biltmore Hills as a neighborhood of affordable homes for middle-class African American families. He named the streets of the subdivision for famous African Americans, including (Ralph) Bunche and (Ella) Fitzgerald Drives and (Roy) Campanella Lane. He later developed Madonna Acres, an upper-level development near St. Augustine's College, and Wintershaven, an apartment complex for senior citizens.

Elected to the Raleigh City Council in 1961, only a year after the Greensboro drug store sit-ins launched the civil rights movement in North Carolina, Mr. Winters was thrust into a key leadership role in Raleigh and Wake County. His was the voice on the city council raised to help the city respond to the civil rights revolution. Quiet-spoken, diplomatic, determined, he was a tower of strength for both whites and blacks as the city responded to the demands for equal rights. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., visited Raleigh in 1961, it was Mr. Winters who was asked to pick him up at the airport and drive him to the speech. Former Governor James B. Hunt called Mr. Winters ``the best bridge-builder between the races that has ever come along in North Carolina.'' Governor Hunt was later to appoint Mr. Winters to the North Carolina Utilities Commission.

In 1974, Mr. Winters and Mr. Fred Alexander of Charlotte were elected to the North Carolina State Senate. They were the first two African Americans elected to that body since Reconstruction. With quiet determination and hard work, Mr. Winters quickly became a leader in the State senate, forming life-long friendships with North Carolina's political leaders. He was a friend of Governors, Senators, Congressmen and Presidents. Governor Terry Sanford, whose term as Governor corresponded with the civil rights protests, was a personal friend and sought Mr. Winters' advice.

Mr. Winters is survived by his wife of 63 years Marie; by seven children, Frances, John, Jr., Donna, Naomi, Rebecca, Roland and Seannea; by a brother, Joseph Winters of Raleigh; by a sister, Delores Scotto of Port Charlotte, Florida; by eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

His courage and his leadership will be missed in Raleigh, Wake County, and North Carolina. If God charges each of us that we leave the world a better place than we found it on our birth, John Winters succeeded admirably. He lived, as the Chinese proverb says, ``in interesting times.'' We can only thank God that a kind Providence saw fit to place us on the same highway of life with John Winters and made him our friend.