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24:796 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS July 25, 1 U77 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS CORA TOMPKINS WILSON-A there was no way to tell the new shift where In 1934, West Texans sent George H. Mahon she wa.s. to Congress, where Lyndon Johnson was a WOMAN FOR ALL SEASONS we a.re used to seeing television sets, often staffer. Ma.hon began wrestling with the na­ in color, on all the wards, but the first two tion's budget when Jimmy Carter was sets were brought by Mrs. Wilson, and they, wrestling with high school algebra. HON. RICHARD L. OTTINGER too, had to hide out in a closet until the Today, after 43 years of service, Ma.hon 1s OF NEW YORK coast was clear. senior to all hiS colleagues. He ls retiring at the end of this term because he would IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Gradually, as friends and neighbors heard of Mrs. Wilson's effort, they joined her. be 80 before the end of another. That 1s a Monday, July 25, 1977 Stores, service organizations, the whole poor reason for the House, or any other in­ neighborhood. of Larchmont and environs stitution, to lose the services of a man whose Mr. OTI'INGER. Mr. Speaker, the pa­ cooperated until Mrs. Wilson was able to a.billtles remain formidable. tients in our mental hospitals are, all provide two or three presents for every pa­ Ma.hon ls six-feet-two, erect and lean. too often, isolated and forgotten. Fortu­ tient in the hospital. Now she has become an He looks as though he was whittled from nately, those at the Harlem Valley State institution. The local pa.per need only note a fence post by the West Texas wind. H1s Psychiatric Center in Wingdale, N.Y., that "It's Cora Wilson Time," and the pres­ capacious memory ls papered, floor to celling, have had Cora Tompkins Wilson to re­ ents fill up the empty store that ls Mrs. with poetry and hymns, which sometimes member them. For 43 years, Mrs. Wilson Wilson's Chrlstma.s headquarters. ring down the fairways when he 1s golfing. had brought gifts to every patient in the Nothing, not her husband's death, her This morning he poses on the Capitol steps hospital at Christmas and Easter. More daughter's death, nor several personal ill­ with a small regiment in bright polyester, importantly, though, she has brought nesses have broken the flow. Her friends Texas la.dies here to keep a.n eye on Congress. friendship and hope to these lonely peo­ have pitched in and ta.ken up the slack. Returning to hiS office, he passes a congress­ ThiS year 1s a memorable one for Mrs. Wil­ man leaving the House floor in shirt sleeves ple. son for another reason; for her second son and murmurs disapproval of the slack stand­ Cora Wilson has created happiness out (her first died some years ago) was dls­ ards of the age. of her own heartbreak. Both of her sons charged from the hospital this year and ls He 1s one of the last links with the New were patients at the center. Despite her living in Westchester County hlmsel!, not Deal, but his credo as chairman of the anguish, she gathered support in her too far from home. But even after this, Cora House Appropriations Committee has been community of Larchmont, and her gift Wilson gathered and sent up Easter candy less Hyde Park than West Texas: "Pay for it project has become a local tradition. for every patient in the hospital. or put it off until we are willing or able to do Even when her surviving son left the The interest has kept her young. At 81, so." hospital, she did not fail to gather pres­ she looks and acts 25 years younger at least. When he was bor-n, there were 26,000 fed­ She ls five feet of dynamo, an eternally inter­ eral workers in Washington. By 1940 there ents for all those who were less fortu­ esting and frequently challenging lndlvld­ were 166,000, a.bout the number the Depart­ nate. ua.l, but always one who has a greeting for ment of Health, Education and Wel!are Recently, the staff of the psychiatric her many friends among the staff and pa­ employs today. Don't blame Ma.hon. center honored Cora Wilson for her tients here. Rep. Thomas Reed of Maine, Speaker of work, for the second time in 4 years. On One person can change the world when the House when Ma.hon was born, once heard learning of this occasion, I came across that person 1s Cora Wilson. a cha.plain pray that Reed would conduct a tribute to this extraordinary woman the House according to the wlll of God prepared in 1974 by the then-director of without regard to partisan politics. Reed volunteer services at Wingdale. Since exclaimed. "I never heard a more prepos­ almost every word of it still rings true to­ AN UNRETIRING CHAffiMAN HAS terous prayer addressed to the throne of DECIDED TO RETIRE Grace." day, I would like to share it with my Reed was right. The House 1s an inherently colleagues: pa.rtlsa.n place. But no man has taken less A WOMAN FOR ALL SEASONS HON. BOB GAMMAGE advantage of large opportunity to abuse pow­ er than has Chairman Ma.hon. (By T. Kent du Pre) OF TEXAS The portraits on the wall of his office in­ ThiS year, as we celebrate the Fiftieth IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Anniversary of thiS hospital, it 1s fitting to clude a baleful one of Thaddeus Stevens, the honor as well a lady who has worked d111- Monday, July 25, 1977 radical Republican of Reconstruction whom gently for much more than hal! the hospi­ the late Stewart Alsop well described as "the tal's existence to help the patients therein. Mr. GAMMAGE. Mr. Speaker, it is a most merciless and vindictive polltlclan the ThiS, indeed, ls the thirty-fifth (and just distinct personal pleasure to call to your United States has produced." No two men possibly the last) year that Mrs. Cora Wilson attention, and to the attention of all my who have served on Capitol Hill a.re less a.like has gathered presents from the citizens of fine colleagues, the following editorial by than Stevens and Ma.hon. southern Westchester County and brought George R. Will, appearing in the Sun­ His conversation constantly teeters agree­ them to our patients for Christmas. For day, July 24, 1977, Washington Post. en­ ably on the edge of a chuckle. Like the red­ nearly as long she has also been dlstrlbutlng titled "An Unretiring Chairman Has De­ and-whlte check necktie he ls wearing with candy and cigarettes for Easter. an otherwlse subdued ensemble, there 1s It all started when she and her husband cided to Retire." a.bout him an unexpected and, happily, ir­ ca.me up at Christmas to visit their son, who I join Mr. Will in lauding the chair­ repressible impulse to lightness. He has been had recently been admitted to the hospital. man for his solid personal charact.er and an ornament to a city with more than its Finding themselves surrounded by B111y's his fair and judicious legislative atti­ fair share of the pompous, a city that ls not fellow patients, who were without vlsltors tude. As Will says: a.bout to take G. K. Chesterton's point. or presents, they went back out, pooled their Mahon ls an American ty-pe-an alloy of "It ls really a natural trend to lapse into money and spent it all on Christmas presents, piety, industriousness, reticence and ab­ ta.king oneself gravely, because 1t is the forgetting in their enthusiasm to save out stemiousness-that once was as common easiest thing to do . For solemn!ty flowt; their bus fare home. The next year, Mrs. as, and soon may be as scarce· as, the homing out of men naturally, but laughter ls a leap. Wilson almost single-handedly gathered, pigeon. It ls easy to be heavy; hard to be light. wrapped and dlstrlbuted 300 gifts. Sa.tan fell by force of gravity." In these days when the local Mental Health I am proud to know and serve with the The hall outside his office is full of scaf­ Associations and many private groups regu­ dean in the House of Representatives. folding for the workmen whose job ls the larly collect, make, and bring presents to the We will sorely miss him. perpetual one of maintaining the special mel­ hospital, it wlll seem strange to know that lowness of the Capitol's rich interior decora­ the first few yea.rs the Wilsons had to smug­ AN UNRETmING CHAmMAN HAs DECID'ED To RETmE tions. The scaffolding, Mahon chuckles, is gle their presents in. One Christmas, in fact, for hanging miscreants, and there never 1s as Mrs. Wilson was going about the wards (By George F. Will) enough scaffolding. And a ladder leaning with a cartload of presents, the word ca.me He was born with the century, in 1900, against the wall puts him in mind of a hymn. up that the Director was touring the wards. in Ma.hon, La., but soon his family, 10 strong, Quickly Mrs. Wilson and her cart were moved to Texas. There, mother kept the We are climbing Jacob's ladder, shunted off into a locked closet, where she children's noses in books, including the one Soldiers of the Cross spent the next two or three hours.

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