Cord Byrd: “this past Saturday my longtime, good friend, and former staff member, Joe Meadows, passed away. Joe Meadows was a…”

“this past Saturday my longtime, good friend, and former staff member, Joe Meadows, passed away. Joe Meadows was a dedicated, hard-working, conscientious, sincere, and loyal individual. As the mail clerk in my office in the Hart Building, he managed the mailroom for me. He did his job effectively and efficiently. And everyone else on the staff liked him. One couldn't help but like Joe Meadows. From time to time, when I went into his section of the office, I would find Joe Meadows with a handful of papers, letters, correspondence, and files in one hand. And with his glasses down over his nose, he would look up over his glasses. He was a wonderful man. He rarely talked about it, this quiet, soft-spoken, hard-working, unassuming man. He was also one of the best country fiddle players in the United States. He was a bluegrass musician, born in a small coal town in southern West Virginia, on the last day of 1934. Joe never learned to read a note of music.”