Heidi Alexander: “Patti Page died on New Year's Day this year. She was 85 years old. The Senate has not been in session for most of the…”

“Patti Page died on New Year's Day this year. She was 85 years old. The Senate has not been in session for most of the time since then. I wanted to come to the floor to pay a Tennessean's tribute to Patti Page. Patti Page is best known for our State song, the ``Tennessee Waltz.'' A few years ago, in 2007, when I met her for the first time, she told me the story of the ``Tennessee Waltz.'' I knew some of it, but she completed the rest of it. In 1946, a couple of Tennesseans, Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart, were driving from Memphis to Nashville. That was before the interstate highways. It took a pretty good amount of time to drive that distance. I don't know whether or not they were drinking a beer on the way from Memphis to Nashville but they were relaxed, and one of them said to the other, Why is it Kentucky and Missouri have a waltz and Tennessee doesn't have a waltz? So on the way from Memphis to Nashville they took out a penny matchbox, which is one of these big boxes with wooden matches in it, dumped out the matches on the floorboards of the car, and on the back of the penny matchbox, between Memphis and Nashville, in 1946, Pee Wee King and Redd Stewart wrote the ``Tennessee Waltz.'' They sang it around a few places. Pee Wee King sang it at the Grand Ole Opry. Nobody paid much attention to it. Cowboy Copas sang it. They sang it on Red Foley's show in Missouri.…”