Brian Jones: “I thank Ms. Foxx for putting this together. Tonight is a sad night, but a very special night, I think, for those of us…”

“I thank Ms. Foxx for putting this together. Tonight is a sad night, but a very special night, I think, for those of us who have had the privilege to know Howard Coble as long as I have. We go back to 1983, when I was a freshman Democrat in the North Carolina House of Representatives and he was a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives as a Republican. Why we met, I don't know, but eventually we became pretty good friends at that point. He then left the North Carolina House and came to Washington, D.C., and my father, Congressman Walter Jones, Sr., was chairman of the Merchant Marine Committee. Mr. Coble, who came from North Carolina, was on that committee because he is a former member of the Coast Guard. He was a natural because of the work they did on that committee. My father became a friend of Howard Coble's. Then I came to Washington, Mr. Speaker, as a Republican, and we have been friends for many years. This man, to me, is very special as a human being. I heard Mr. Price say the ``dean,'' but I call him the ``leadah'', l-e-a-d-a-h. Mr. Coble likes to tell people that is because those of us from eastern North Carolina don't know the word ``leader'' ends in e-r instead of a-h. I did that because at the time we became the majority in 1995, it was a change in the House, for sure, and there was a Democrat for a number of years, and Mr. Coble, being the kind of man he was, said, ``No, I don't want to be called the dean.…”