[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E683-E687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

A SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING TO GOD FOR THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF THE
HONORABLE JAMES C. WRIGHT, JR., 12TH DISTRICT OF TEXAS, SPEAKER OF THE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

______

HON. JOHN A. BOEHNER

of ohio

in the house of representatives

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Mr. BOEHNER. Mr. Speaker, the Honorable James Claude Wright, former
Speaker of the House of Representatives, died on May 6, 2015. On that
day, I issued the following statement:

The whole House mourns the passing of Speaker Jim Wright of
the state of Texas. We remember Speaker Wright today for his
lifelong commitment to public service, from flying combat
missions over the South Pacific to fighting for Fort Worth on
the House floor. Speaker Wright understood as well as anyone
this institution's closeness to the people, calling the House
`the raw essence of the nation.' It is in this spirit that we
send our deepest condolences to his family and community.
The House took several steps to honor the former Speaker. The
Speaker's chair on the rostrum was draped in black--the same mark of
respect first made upon the death of Michael Kerr of Indiana, Speaker
of the House in the 44th Congress and most recently for Thomas Foley.
The Speaker's gavel rested on the rostrum during this period. Outside
the House Chamber, Speaker Wright's official portrait in the Speaker's
lobby was draped in black. A book of condolences was made available for
the remembrances of friends and colleagues. On May 12, 2015, the House
adopted House Resolution 245, expressing the condolences of the House
upon his death, and the House adjourned on that day as a further mark
of respect to his memory. A funeral was held on May 11, 2015, at First
United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. The following is a
transcript of those proceedings:

A Service of Thanksgiving to God for the Life and Legacy of James
Claude Wright, Jr., December 22, 1922-May 6, 2015

Prelude--(Ms. Peggy Graff, organist)
Processional--``Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee''
Call to worship
(The Reverend Dr. Tim Bruster, First United Methodist
Church, Fort Worth, Texas)
Reverend Bruster: Please be seated.
Hear these words of Jesus: I am the resurrection and the
life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will
live, and everybody who lives and believes in me will never
die.
Christ said: I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end. Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last and the
living one. I was dead, and now I am alive, forever and ever.
Friends, we have gathered here to praise God and to draw
comfort from our faith and to give thanks as we celebrate the
life of Jim Wright.
We come together in grief, of course, acknowledging our
human loss. But we also come together in gratitude,
acknowledging and giving thanks for his life and his legacy
and for everything in his life that was a reflection of the
love and the grace of God.
May God grant us grace in this time that in pain we may
find comfort, in sorrow we may find joy, and in death,
resurrection.
Let's pray.
Our gracious and loving God, we bow in awe of Your
greatness and Your love. You have spoken words of life to us
in so many ways. You've given form and beauty to our world,
and all of creation sings Your praise.
You have given us one another to love and receive love, a
reflection of Your gracious love for us. And You have spoken
to us in the words of Scripture and in Jesus, the Word made
flesh, the Author of life.
As You speak to us now, in this service of worship, help us
once again to hear Your words of life as we celebrate the
life and legacy of Your servant, Jim.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
I invite you now to turn in your worship guide to the words
of the 23rd Psalm as we say them together:
``The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
``He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me
beside the still waters.
``He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of
righteousness for His name's sake.
``Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and
Thy staff they comfort me.
``Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine
enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth
over.
``Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of
my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
The words of Psalm 46:
``God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in
trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the Earth should
change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble
with its tumult.
``There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of
the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the
morning dawns. The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms
totter; He utters His voice, the Earth melts. The Lord of
hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.
``Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations
He has brought on the Earth. He makes wars cease to the end
of the Earth; He breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; He
burns the shields with fire. `Be still, and know that I am
God! I am exalted among the nations; I am exalted in the
Earth.' The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our
refuge.''
The words of the prophet Micah:
`` `With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself
before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt
offerings, with calves a year old. Will the Lord be pleased
with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of
my body for the sin of my soul?'
``He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does
the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?''
God speaks to us in the reading of Scripture.
Solo--``Let There Be Peace on Earth'' performed by Mr.
Christopher Auchter.
(The Honorable Martin Frost, United States House of
Representatives, 24th District of Texas, 1979-2005)
Mr. Frost: Well, in the words of President John F. Kennedy
about Jim Wright:
No city in America was better represented in Congress than
Fort Worth.
I'm here today to speak on behalf of the scores of people--
many of whom, Texans--that Jim Wright helped along the way
with their careers. He was our mentor, our colleague, and our
friend. And we were better public servants because of Jim
Wright, and many of those Members, past and present, Democrat
and Republican, are here with us today to honor Jim.
In a minute, I'm going to speak about what Jim did for my
career, but it really speaks volumes for what he did for a
lot of others, too.
Jim Wright was an extraordinary leader both for the people
of Fort Worth and for our Nation. He always remembered the
people who sent him to Washington and worked tirelessly to
make our country even better every day he was in office. Few
Congressmen in recent times have had a greater impact than
our friend Jim Wright.
I met Jim Wright 57 years ago, in 1958, when he was a young
Congressman beginning his second term and I was a 16-year-
old. Jim was the guest speaker at the Temple Beth-El youth
group in the basement of the old synagogue building on West
Broadway, near downtown. I had never met a national
politician before, and he made a deep impression on me that
day. I remember to this day some of what he said, and more of
that a little bit later.
Seven years later, in 1965, I showed up in Washington as a
young reporter covering Congress for a magazine, and the
first thing I did was to go see my hometown Congressman, Jim
Wright. Jim and his chief of staff, Marshall Lynam, were very
helpful to this young reporter, suggesting who I should get
to know on congressional committee staffs. Three years later,
in the summer of 1968, Jim helped me get a job on Hubert
Humphrey's national Presidential campaign staff while I was a
student at Georgetown Law School.
The last two people I saw before I headed back to Texas
following graduation in 1970 were Jim and Marshall. I told
them that I hoped to come back to D.C. some day as a
Congressman--in a neighboring district. I had no intention of
ever running against Jim Wright.
Fast forward to 1976 when I was north Texas coordinator of
the Carter-Mondale Presidential campaign. The Carter campaign
wanted to come to Texas the weekend before the general
election when carrying Texas was still in doubt. They wanted
to only stop in Dallas. As a Fort Worth boy, I told them they
also had to come to Cowtown and that I knew that local
Congressman Jim Wright would put on one hell of a show for
them, and that's exactly what Jim did. He filled the downtown
convention center with more than 10,000 people early in the
afternoon that

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Sunday. It made great television, and Carter became the last
Democratic Presidential candidate to carry Texas.
Shortly after that election, Jim Wright became House
majority leader by one vote in a hotly contested secret
ballot election. He certainly knew how to count. Two years
later, I was elected to Congress from the 24th District,
which, in fact, adjoined the 12th District that Jim
represented. Jim went to Speaker Tip O'Neill and made sure I
was named to the powerful House Rules Committee, an
appointment that almost never went to a freshman Member.
From that day on, Jim Wright and I became both colleagues
and friends. He was my mentor during the 11 years we served
together, and I learned an enormous amount just watching him
in action. And when I inherited the Black community in
southeast Fort Worth following the 1991 redistricting, I only
used one picture in my mailing: a photo of Jim Wright and me.
There wasn't anything else the voters in that part of my
district needed to know.
They continued to be my base for the remainder of my 26
years in Congress, and just to make sure people in Fort Worth
knew that I had strong ties to Fort Worth, even though I now
lived in Dallas, he used to tell anyone who would listen that
I went to high school in his district in Fort Worth's
Paschal, and he went to high school in my district in Dallas'
Adamson.
When Jim taught a course at TCU on Congress for 20 years
after leaving the Congress, I was proud to be a guest
lecturer for him every single year. The last time I saw Jim
was in the spring of 2014, when I was working on a book about
Congress. We visited for about an hour in his office at TCU.
His body was frail, but his mind was as sharp as ever.
I learned how to be an effective Congressman by observing
Jim as a colleague and as a junior partner on a variety of
matters that helped Fort Worth. He never forgot the people
who sent him to Washington. He was a stalwart in his work on
behalf of defense workers at what is now Lockheed Martin,
which was General Dynamics, and Bell Helicopter in Fort
Worth.
He played a significant role in the decision by American
Airlines to move its corporate headquarters from New York to
the Metroplex, and he was a strong supporter of DFW airport,
the jobs magnet for this part of the State.
We worked together--and by the way, he did the heavy
lifting--to convince the railroad to make its right-of-way
available for the Trinity River Express connecting Fort Worth
and Dallas. No request from anyone in Tarrant County was too
small to win Jim's help.
Also, Jim's role in promoting the careers of promising
African Americans from Fort Worth was of great significance.
He brought Lorraine Miller, a young woman from the southeast
side of Fort Worth, to Washington to work on his staff. Years
later, she became the first African American to serve as
Clerk of the U.S. House and recently served as interim
national president of the NAACP. And just a few years ago,
Jim played a key role in the election of Mark Veasey, who
became the first Black Congressman from Fort Worth.
One of Jim's greatest strengths was molding a disparate
group of Democrats into an effective majority when he became
Speaker. During his first year as Speaker in 1987--and Tony
and Steny, you will remember this--Congress passed all 13
appropriation bills before the start of the new fiscal year
on October 1, something that is almost never done today.
I remember his response to a question from the audience at
that speech at Temple Beth-El in 1958. He was asked what a
Congressman does when he feels one way about an issue and his
district feels the other way. He responded that the job of a
Congressman was to reflect the views of his district as often
as he could. He then added that he reserved a small
percentage of votes, perhaps 10 percent, to vote against the
majority of his district if he felt something was vital in
the national interest. And he then added that it was his
responsibility to go back to his constituents to explain his
vote and hopefully convince them that he was right and they
were wrong. He added that if a Congressman couldn't
successfully do that, he wouldn't be reelected, and that was
as it should be.
He did a very good job following his own advice. I did the
same and found that he was exactly correct.
Fort Worth is a great city today because of Jim Wright. We
all owe him an enormous debt of gratitude. We will never see
his like again.
(The Honorable Bill Alexander, United States House of
Representatives, First District of Arkansas, 1969-1993)
Mr. Alexander: Jimmy and Ginger, Kerry, Lisa, and all the
Wright family, I feel that we are kin.
And to all of his friends who are here today, I join you in
tribute to one of my dearest friends.
I kept up with Jim through the years, even after he left
Washington and returned to Texas; and following his recovery
from surgery, I gave him a call one day, and he invited me to
come to Fort Worth. So my son and I--Alex, who is here--with
his sister Ashley, who came to TCU at a later time, boarded
our plane and came to DFW. At those days, Jim was driving,
and so he met us at the airport. I'd never been outside of
DFW before, so I didn't know what to expect.
And so as we left the terminal, I noticed all of the
concrete infrastructure that supports the airport: the
entrance ramps, the exit ramps, the overhead bridges, the
long ride to the interstate. I never saw so much concrete in
all my life. So I turned to Jim, who at one time, as most of
you know, was chairman of the Public Works Committee, and I
said to him, ``Jim, how much money did the Public Works
Committee spend on this airport?'' And he looked at me and
rolled his brow and lifted his big bushy eyebrows and he said
to me, ``Not a penny more than the law allowed.''
Jim was probably one of the most successful chairmen in
Congress; and with that success, people encouraged him, and
he ran for majority leader. As all of you probably followed
in the news, it was a very contentious race, and on the day
of the vote, I was appointed to be a judge. And so after the
votes were cast, I adjourned with the other members of
the election group and counted the votes. We counted them
twice, and Jim won by one vote.
I got up from the chair in the Speaker's lounge--the
Speaker's lobby, we call it--rushed through the door to the
House Chamber, and Jim was sitting on the second row on the
Democratic side in the Hall of the House. I rushed up to him
and I said, ``Jim, you won.'' He was surprised because no one
knew the outcome of that election. He looked at me, and he
said, ``Are you sure?'' And I said, ``Jim, I counted the
votes, and if you hadn't won, Phil Burton said he would send
me to Alaska.''
Following in the footsteps of Sam Rayburn and Lyndon
Johnson, Jim asserted leadership in Congress at a time of
confusion in the Senate and the White House, demonstrating a
unique ability to command our Nation's political resources to
get things done. And this went across the aisle to the
Republicans and even down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White
House, which is a million miles away if you serve in Congress
sometimes.
Jim Wright had fought in World War II to defend the values
of the Greatest Generation, as Tom Brokaw describes this
generation, a generation of men and women united in common
purposes of family, country, duty, honor, courage, and
service. During World War II, he flew many combat missions. I
haven't really been able to discern exactly how many yet
because there's such a debate over it. Maybe somebody will
tell me before I go back to Washington. And he served as a
bombardier and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for
his bravery.
Jim believed that government should serve the people as
well as the economic interests, which also must be
represented, and provide Federal assistance to communities
and States like Arkansas, where I'm from. It's in need of
capital development in order to provide infrastructure to try
to attract industry and jobs for our people. That was, in his
view, providing building blocks for the foundation of the
economic development that benefits all of us. All you've got
to do is look around in Texas a little bit to find out if it
works.
The criticism of Speaker Wright, which is in the news,
instead of all of the accomplishments that we know he
achieved, his strong leadership came from a changing
Congress. Some of my former colleagues from Congress are here
today, and they know what I'm talking about.
Beginning with the 1968 election, which was my first
election to Congress, the ideals and values of the Greatest
Generation began to evolve. A Congress run by Southern
Democrats, who chaired mostly the important committees in the
Congress, was gradually replaced by a younger generation of
Congressmen and Senators, many of them in the other party.
And when he left Congress, even his political enemies often
remarked that, had he stayed in Congress, he would have been
the greatest Speaker since Henry Clay.
His time as Speaker laid down historic markers. He was the
last great figure in Congress to keep alive the idea of
development--that came from the New Deal--that would help our
economy.
After him came what we call Reaganomics and the tidal wave
of polarization of our two political parties and the
continuing mindless cannibalism which we can still see
evident today between the parties and even in the parties in
Congress.
Criticism of Speaker Wright's forceful leadership came from
Republicans and Democrats alike; although, at the time he
stepped down, the principal antagonists came from within our
own party. I was there, and I know who they are.
What followed was a profound change in the power structure
in Congress, shifting away from the power and authority
lodged in a handful of key Southern committee chairmen to a
dispersion of power among proliferating committees and
subcommittees, encouraging intensifying rivalries and even
political fratricides throughout the House. His departure
marked the end of an era when Southern Democrats dominated in
both the House and the Senate, along with a gradual evolution
of the Congress toward social issues.
It marked the transition from Southern leadership of
Congress to a growing concentration of power of the
Democratic Party in our Nation's biggest cities, many of them
in the North, opening a widening rift between our Nation's
small towns and rural areas and the political interests of
the inner cities. The way was opened for lobbyists to shift
attention away from schools and roads and bridges and water
systems that helped

[[Page E685]]

our people to special interests of Wall Street banks and a
commercial agenda.
A fluent speaker of Spanish, he took the initiative to
intervene in the political crisis in Nicaragua and crafted
peace talks that laid the foundation for elections. When I
assisted him in this so-called ``junket,'' in his endeavor I
found that what we tried to do generated much consternation
among President Reagan's White House staff. Later, another
great Texan, James Baker, observed that what Jim Wright did
with his intervention in Nicaragua turned the corner for that
nation and helped the U.S. and Nicaragua to come to better
terms with one another.
Jim Wright was not only a master of the political structure
and the rules in Congress, he also was an author, a
professor. He lectured at Texas Christian University with
eagerness to inspire and guide our Nation's youth.
In the tradition of Sam Houston and Sam Rayburn, Jim Wright
was a giant. I was his chief deputy whip in the Congress, the
worst job in the House of Representatives, but it was worth
all the knocks and the cuts and the bruises and the criticism
that I endured to fight for the values established by the
Greatest Generation until the ideals were changed by a new
breed of voter who believes that Washington is not a
solution, rather, Washington is the problem.
He was my dear friend, and I stood with him in every fight
for the values that won World War II and provided the
building blocks and foundation for the greatest economy on
Earth.
God bless Jim Wright.
(Mr. Paul Driskell, Special Assistant, Majority Leader
James C. Wright, Jr.)
Mr. Driskell: Martin, Bill, Betsy, Mike, Kenneth, Mr.
Leader, Steny Hoyer--the one man in this sanctuary today who
knows the full weight and measure and the responsibilities of
the job this prince of peace executed so beautifully for so
many years. Dear Steny, thank you for your presence today.
How very, very special, how honored he would be, how much he
would love this congregation today. This is a delegation of
community builders.
Mr. Wright loved Sam Rayburn dearly, and he often quoted
him; and of course many people wondered why Mr. Rayburn went
back to Bonham, Texas, after announcing he was going to leave
the House, and his answer was simple:
Bonham, Texas: the people there know when you're sick, and
they care when you die.
You have validated Jim Wright's recitation of that quote,
all of you today, by honoring him in coming here. You knew he
was ill, and you cared that he died. Oh, how he would
celebrate you. Oh, how he must be enjoying this. He loved
people of accomplishment. He loved people who contributed and
built.
Mr. Rayburn used to always say: A jackass can kick a barn
down; it takes a carpenter to build one. It's no accident
that our Lord was fathered by a carpenter--and parented by a
carpenter in his early years.
I'd like to give you a sense of Speaker Wright, Jim Wright,
and my friend. It may be very, very unique. And as I have
thought about him so much and as I visited him in those final
days, things came to me that I would have never imagined. He
was, in fact, the first gifted multitasker. Now, if you know
anything about Jim, he despised anything to do with
technology, but he was a multitasker. Let me explain what I
mean.
February 7, 1985, 11 o'clock in the morning, after about 30
days, some of the people in this room--Tony, John--had been
working diligently because Mr. O'Neill had told us privately
he was going to retire. So we were trying to collect the
requisite number of votes for him to become Speaker of the
House 2 years out.
February 7, 1985, 11 o'clock in the morning, a national
press conference was held in the office that Steny Hoyer's
offices are in today. He met the national press. He was
surrounded by his colleagues. He was surrounded by people who
loved him and wished well for him, and he made the
announcement that he had achieved the requisite number of
votes to capture his dream, to be Speaker of the House. He
put a peace, if you will, in a body that's not given to peace
easily about the next years and how things would follow.
Fifteen minutes later, he grabbed me by the arm and
escorted me and my wife, Donna, up the back stairs with 31
other people to the House Chaplain's office where Chaplain
Ford married us at Henry Clay's desk, the great compromiser.
And then, he walked back downstairs with us. We had a
reception in the office. He pulled Donna and me aside and he
said, ``I only have two things to tell you two: Paul, always
hold her hand, and never go to bed mad.''
Mr. Speaker, sometimes you set the bar too high. I have
removed pillows from my bed so as not to elevate the
temptation for Donna to smother me.
There are so many things privately that I loved about him
and that we shared. He had a passionate love for boxing. He
knew boxing. He knew boxing like Nat Fleischer, the famous
author who recorded almost everything of significance about
American heavyweight boxing. We went to a fight. We went to
Golden Gloves. We went to the Olympic trials. We went to tons
of professional fights. It was like going to that fight with
Nat Fleischer, and he would be sitting there and he would be
reciting to you the ring scores of the Firpo-Dempsey fight.
He knew--every--every hobby and interest he had, he wanted to
know everything there was to know about it. If you ever saw
the roses that he cultivated, you'd understand that in
spades. He was a gifted horticulturist. He was a great
teacher.
Kay, you and I sat just about where Steny was sitting 2
years ago, 2\1/2\ years ago, and you told me how he taught
you and Ginger, Jenny and Lisa about God. In fact, he used a
wagon wheel and said that was the universe and God was,
indeed, the hub; and the spokes represented the people, and,
of course, the rim, where all the damage and impact takes
place, was the furthest from God. And he admonished you that
it was your job, it was your responsibility, it was a
testament of your faith to move closer down those spokes
because you would be closer to more people, and as you were
closer to more people, you'd be closer to God. What a gift.
I've often wondered, and I think everyone in this sanctuary
today wonders, why God lets us see certain things at certain
times. It seems rather odd. Last week, just the day before
his passing and only a few days after my last visit with him,
there was a documentary on about George Foreman. I happened
to turn it on the other night. George Foreman, the famous
heavyweight, struck fear and terror in everyone's heart--
undefeated, knocked poor Joe Frazier down eight times. And
the interviewer asked him a question. He said, ``Who was the
greatest champion of all time in your estimation?'' And
George Foreman didn't hesitate. He said, ``Muhammad Ali.''
That stunned the interviewer.
Muhammad Ali had defeated George Foreman in Zaire, Africa,
and usually when a boxer loses to another one, it was a lucky
punch or you're just a little better that night, not the
greatest champion that ever lived. He didn't hesitate. He
said, ``Muhammad Ali.''
The interviewer said, ``Why? Why do you choose him?'' He
said, ``Well, if you saw the fight in the eighth round, he
hit me twice in the face.'' And if any of you remember or
happened to have seen it, George Foreman began to cartwheel.
He began to turn and fall to the floor. And as he was
falling, Muhammad Ali, as all boxers are trained all their
life to do, cocked his arm to hit him with what is known as
the ``killing punch.''
And George Foreman said, ``I looked up out of my left eye,
just partially conscious, knowing I was going to the floor,
and he never threw that punch. So for me, he's not the
greatest champion that ever lived for the punches he threw;
it's for what he didn't do. It's the punch he didn't throw.''
And the very people who besmirched and impugned this prince
of peace at the end of his public career, when they fell on
hard times and they fell by the sword they had so recklessly
wielded, not once in private--and certainly never in public--
did Jim Wright throw that punch. He could not retaliate. He
didn't just talk Christian forgiveness; he lived it. His
higher calling at that time was to find a way to inspire
students at TCU to engage in public service and to think
about the possibilities of what they could build, like the
beautiful people in this room today. He didn't throw that
punch.
I was 15 years old, standing in front of a black-and-white
TV, and I watched Robert Kennedy say, ``When he shall die,
take him and cut him out into stars, and he shall make the
face of Heaven so fine that all the world will be in love
with night and pay no worship to the garish Sun.''
I didn't know at 15 just what that meant. At 65, I marvel
how Bobby Kennedy could have mustered the strength and the
insight to say that about the brother he loved, in some ways
his best friend, and, oh, by the way, in passing, the
President of the United States.
I understood because of this church and because of my
association with him that all of us have a spark of divinity.
We are all made in God's image, and that spark is there, but
what I didn't understand was that there are a special few who
possess a flame, a torch. It's bigger. It's more committed.
It's something we can appreciate. It's not
necessarily something we readily understand.
It's not by accident that there's an eternal flame that
burns at John Kennedy's grave and why, for all the
accomplishments: the Peace Corps, the space program, all of
those things--no. That's part of it. That's why millions go
there to pay respects. The part of it is that during the most
sensitive time in our Nation's history, when we were the
closest to engaging in a nuclear holocaust, when every
adviser that that President had was admonishing him to take
advantage of the tactical and strategic position we occupied
for those precious few days and strike Cuba with nuclear
weapons, he didn't throw that punch. And we're all breathing
good air and loving our friends and conducting our lives
because of that divine torch.
The thing I think I will miss most is a private passion
that Jim had and I shared. He loved movies. The singular
thing that we really appreciated together was we happened to
think that Robert Duvall was the greatest American actor
that's ever lived.
Jim's favorite movie was ``Tender Mercies,'' and my
favorite film was ``The Natural.'' And in ``The Natural,''
there's a scene--of course, all the ladies in here know
Robert Redford was the natural. He was Roy Hobbs, the gifted
baseball player. Robert Duvall was the cynical sportswriter;
Wilford Brimley was the crusty old coach.
And there's that beautiful soliloquy where the coach walks
in and he says--I mean, pardon me, Robert Duvall walks in and
says to the coach, ``Coach, who is this Roy Hobbs?'' And the
coach turns on his heels and says, ``I

[[Page E686]]

don't know who Roy Hobbs is. I just know he's the best there
is and the best there ever will be.''
Jim Wright, you are the natural.
There probably has never been a man in American history who
I can recall that so eloquently used the English language. He
helped those of us who only have sparks appreciate the flame
with his application of our language.
And it seems a shame that I can't find words in my language
to encompass all that he was, and yet he will always be. Only
in Spanish: Vaya con Dios--go and be with God. Light of our
land. Vaya con Dios, friend of my life.
Congregational Hymn--``This is My Song''
Reverend Bruster: I invite you to hear now the words of the
Apostle Paul from the first letter to the Corinthians,
Chapter 13:
``If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but
do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And
if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and
all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove
mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away
all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may
boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
``Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or
boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own
way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in
wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth. Love bears all things,
believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
``Love never ends.''
And Paul ends that chapter with the words:
``And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the
greatest of these is love.''
The words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, a sermon on the
plain:
``But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good
to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for
those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek,
offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your
coat, do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who
begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not
ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to
you.
``If you love those who love you, what credit is that to
you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do
good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?
For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom
you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners
lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your
enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your
reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most
High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be
merciful, just as your Father is merciful.''
Jim had a wonderful, quick wit as we all know. His
responses to glowing introductions illustrated that point.
Two years ago, when Cissy Day was introducing him to a Sunday
school class where he was about to speak, she told a story at
the end of her introduction of something that he had done
that was very kind and a note that he had written to her that
was a kind note that she treasured. When he stood up then to
speak, he looked over at her and he said, ``Uh, I had
forgotten how nice I used to be.''
After a glowing introduction at another event, he said,
``An event of this dimension is just terribly hard on one's
humility. Try as I might to look and sound humble, I just
can't quite pull it off.''
And then he quoted Jesus: ``Let your light so shine before
others that they may see your good works and give glory to
your Father who is in Heaven.''
And he said, ``You know, when I read that, I realized he
doesn't say, `Let your light so shine so that others may see
your good works and think what a great guy.' '' And then he
went on to say, ``The purpose of good works is not to get
bragged on.'' But then he said this: ``But if I'm honest with
you, I guess I'm going to have to let you in on a little
personal confession. Being bragged on, I like it,'' he said.
``I eat it up.''
And on another occasion, he said after an introduction,
``Undeserved as though an introduction like that is, indeed I
want you to know that I liked it. I liked every word of it.''
And then he said, ``There are two kinds of people who
appreciate flattery: men and women.''
So since Jim made that confession, I guess it's okay that
we tell of his good works and that we laud him. And I hope
that he would appreciate that we do it not just pointing at
Jim, but pointing at the source of all of that for Jim;
pointing not just to Jim, but beyond to the legacy that he
received from other people, and beyond Jim to his faith and
his commitment to Christ that guided his life.
He leaves a great legacy, and our words hold up those great
attributes not to point just to Jim, but to also point to his
faith and commitment and the One in whom he had faith and the
One that he sought to follow, and also to see Jim's life as
an example to all of us.
I want to think about that with you for just a few minutes.
Jim was an encourager. As he sought to be a follower of
Christ and as he put that into practice in his life, he knew
the importance of encouragement. He was an encourager.
In the book of Acts, we meet a man named Joseph. He was
from Cyprus. But we don't know him as Joseph. We almost never
hear that. After his first introduction in the book of Acts,
he's known by his nickname, and his nickname was Barnabas.
The disciples, the apostles, nicknamed him Barnabas because
Barnabas means ``son of encouragement.'' He was an
encourager. Imagine having your nickname mean one who
encourages. We could call Jim that, a Barnabas, because he
was. He was a son of encouragement.
How many of us in this room, I wonder, have, in our
possession, notes of encouragement from Jim Wright? I would
guess a lot of us. Those notes arrived at a time of
discouragement, perhaps, or a time of grief or a time of
uncertainty or a time of failing confidence or a time of
waning courage. A note of encouragement arrived at just the
right time.
What is the value of those notes? I was thinking about that
and thought, you know, the law of supply and demand would say
those notes are not worth anything at all; there are too many
of them on the market. But the value of those notes goes far
beyond that. They're valued in a different way. One person
told me that she had such a note in a plastic sleeve and
carried it with her for a long time.
What an encourager, not just the notes, but the right words
spoken at the right moment.
We give thanks to God for Jim because Jim was a peacemaker,
and we have heard our speakers talk eloquently about his
peacemaking efforts. He often quoted Jesus, again, from the
Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
will be called children of God.
And he was a peacemaker. He was a man of strong convictions
but yet able to see and to respect the perspective of another
and to bring people together in ways that make for peace. He
was, as a peacemaker, a child of God, as Jesus said.
Now, peacemaking extended beyond what you may know about to
his role as a parent. His daughters, Ginger and Kay, were
fighting one time as sisters do, and Jim intervened as the
peacemaker. And he made each one of them go to her room and
write an essay, entitled, ``Why I Love My Sister.'' And he
held on to those essays for 30 years, and then he gave them
back to the girls so they could read them.
Kay wrote this: ``Well, I suppose she's nice. Her friends
seem to like her.''
Ginger wrote: ``Well, she seems to like my clothes because
she wears them all the time.''
He closed the door after reading those essays and guffawed,
as you can imagine.
Ginger's comment, when she was telling me about it, was,
``And he thought the Sandinistas and Contras were tough.''
Jim was a servant leader; we know that. His accomplishments
were many. In serving his beloved Weatherford and his beloved
Fort Worth and his beloved Nation, he was a servant leader.
Whether that was as a father, a grandfather, a great-
grandfather, a soldier, a State legislator, a Scout master, a
golden gloves boxing coach, a Sunday school teacher, a church
leader, a mayor, a Congressman, a majority leader, a Speaker
of the House, a teacher, or a friend, he was a servant
leader--again, following the words of Jesus that we are to be
servants of one another if we're ever to be called great.
His life was committed to compassion and justice. I read
those wonderful words from Micah a moment ago. Micah was
writing to a nation, to his people, who had lost their
way, who had lost sight of that which was most important.
They had the right words. They had the right rituals. But
Micah wrote that that was all empty and reminded them of
what was most important that they should have known
already.
He said, ``What has he told you, O mortal, but what is
good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do
justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your
God.''
On so many occasions, I saw Jim share his faith; I saw Jim
share his values, heard him speak in this pulpit. A number of
years ago--I think it was in 2006--my wife, Susan, who was
working at William James Middle School as academic
coordinator, shared that with Jim, and he said, ``I used to
go to William James Middle School.'' And she invited him then
to come and speak to the students, and she had Jim Wright
Day, and he spent most of the day at the school. And he
talked with those students, and he had a reception in the
library where he shared with them.
There was a big assembly in the auditorium, and it's one of
those old classic schools with a big auditorium, a balcony in
the back, and it was packed with middle school kids. And I
couldn't believe my eyes and my ears when he spoke to them.
You could hear a pin drop. He was a master.
And he shared with those kids the story of the Good
Samaritan. I remember how he started into that. He said,
``There are a lot of different beliefs.'' He said, ``There is
a man who lived a long time ago. His name was Jesus. He was a
very good man, and a lot of different people believed a lot
of different things about him. But he told some stories that
taught some important values, and everybody agrees on that,''
he said.
He told the story of the Good Samaritan. You know the
story. The man is beaten and robbed, lying on the side of the
road. Along come two people who pass by on the other side,
and then comes the Samaritan who is the outsider in the
story, and he's the one who helps the man. And I remember Jim
said to those kids, ``This illustrates really three
philosophies of life, the three ways of approaching life.''
He said, ``There is the philosophy of the thieves, and
their philosophy is what's yours

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is mine, and I'll take it.'' He said, ``That philosophy still
lives in attacking others and cheating people and greedy
business practices and being envious of others and whatever
belittles or injures or degrades another person. It's not
always physically violent,'' he said. He said, ``We rob
others by slander or gossip when we injure their
reputations.''
And he said, ``The second philosophy is that of the two men
who saw the wounded man but offered no help.'' He said,
``Their central operating principle is what is mine is all
mine, and I'll keep it for myself.'' He said, ``That's less
violent, but in its own way it's as selfish as the first.''
He said, ``We can come up with all kinds of excuses to
justify not helping those injured along life's highway. We
deceive ourselves and ignore their suffering by saying that
they're not our responsibility.''
Then he said, ``Then there's the Samaritan. This was Jesus'
model for humanity. He was a stranger and a child of another
religious heritage, but he extended himself freely to help
one in need. And his philosophy is what's mine is yours if
you need it, and I'll share it with you.''
And then he said, ``Jesus told that story in answer to a
question. The question was, Who is my neighbor?'' And then he
told those kids, ``There are these three philosophies of
life, and there's only one that makes the world a better
place. There's only one that makes your relationships better,
and it's that of the Samaritan. And we each can choose how we
live.''
Now, that illustrates so much how Jim lived and how he
wanted to pass on that legacy to those who came after him.
Much has been spoken about his ability to forgive, and I
cannot but think, as we meditate on those words of Jesus, the
words of Paul about love, Jesus' words about forgiveness, and
I can't help but think of the quote that he often gave from
Abraham Lincoln.
Someone once asked Lincoln if he believed in destroying his
enemies, and Lincoln replied, ``Of course, I would like to
destroy my enemies because I've never wanted enemies. The
only way I know satisfactorily to destroy an enemy is to
convert him to a friend.''
The Fetzer Institute has done a lot of research on
forgiveness, and they define it in a way that I think is so
meaningful, and that is, forgiveness is the difficult,
intentional process of letting go of an old reality and
opening up one's self to a new one. And Jim lived that
difficult, intentional process of being able to let go of an
old reality and opening up and living a new one.
One friend emailed me and said, ``He was the poster child
for amazing grace.''
That's the legacy that we celebrate today, and there's so
much more that could be said. The challenge for all of us
today was how do we winnow it down. But you know what? You
carry those stories of Jim; you carry those memories; you
carry that legacy. Share it; share it with one another; and
do your best. Let us all do our best to live it--to live it.
In the obituary that you were handed as you came in, there
is a favorite quote of his from Horace Greeley:
``Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, riches take
wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow. Only one
thing endures--character.''
Well done, Jim Wright, good and faithful servant. Let's
pray.
Gracious God, we give You thanks for the hope that faith in
You gives. For all Your people who have laid hold on that
hope, especially we thank You for Your faithful servant Jim
Wright. We thank You for all Your goodness to him and for
everything in his life that was a reflection of Your love and
Your grace. We give You thanks for his faith, for his love
for and his commitment to You and to his family and to his
friends, to his Nation.
We give You thanks for his kindness, his passion for
justice, his courage, and his strength of character. Loving
God, hold us and all who mourn in Your love, and comfort this
loving family and comfort us, his friends. Help us all to be
ever mindful of Your sustaining presence.
We offer a prayer in the name of Jesus.
Amen.
In just a few moments, the family will process out, and
you're invited to Wesley Hall, which is across the garden in
that adjacent part of the building, for a reception with the
family. Please note the instructions that are on the back of
your bulletin, and I invite you to please remain seated, if
you will, until the ushers direct you.
Ginger shared with me one of her favorite memories of
opening of the Presidential display, the new Presidential
display in the early 1990s, a room turned into a replica of
LBJ's office there in Austin. There was an antique pump organ
there signed by all the Members of Congress, and Jake Pickle
sat down at the organ and started playing a hymn. And the
congressional Members and former Members there started
singing the hymn, and it's the hymn that we're going to sing
in just a moment after Jim's great-grandchildren give us our
benediction.
A benediction isn't really a prayer. It can be a prayer of
course, but traditionally, it is not. The word
``benediction'' literally means ``a good word.'' The great-
grandchildren, led by the oldest, Campbell, will give us
their good word.
Will you come now.
(Campbell Brown, Jim Wright's great-granddaughter, and Jim
Wright's great-grandchildren)
Miss Brown: Hi, my name is Campbell Brown. Everyone on
stage with me is a great-grandchild of Jim Wright or, as we
like to call him, ``Great Pop.''
None of us were born when he was in Congress, but we all
knew his love for this great country, especially Fort Worth.
We are told by many people that he often said, ``I want to
make the world a better place for my children, their
children, and their children's children.'' Well, that's us.
Next to me are the children of the grandchildren. We are the
next generation.
We would like to ask you to honor our Great Pop for the
rest of the day by thinking about how you can make the world
a better place. As you walk out of the church and for the
rest of today, think about peace, not war; think about
abundance, not scarcity; think about love, not hate, and
hope, not despair.
Please help us lift Great Pop to his next roll call by
singing the final hymn.
Thank y'all for coming today.
Congregational Hymn--``When the Roll is Called Up Yonder''
Recessional--``For All the Saints''

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