Jerry Moran: “the last image that we have of Bill is one of courage and strength, an oxygen tube in his mouth, confined to a…”

“the last image that we have of Bill is one of courage and strength, an oxygen tube in his mouth, confined to a wheelchair. But the Bill Emerson that will live on in our minds and our hearts is a gregarious man, just full of energy and goodness and pride that he was part of this institution. I had the privilege of representing Bill and Jo Ann and their four daughters at their home-away-from-home in McLean, VA. In fact, I had a wonderful day one day when his daughter Tori shadowed me for the full day. And I will never forget when Bill joined us for lunch of seeing the pride in his eyes as he looked at his daughter, so beautiful, so bright, so accomplished, and he knew that this was largely because of his investment of time and caring and love in her and the rest of his family. He lives on in that family, as he does in this body. He invested so much of himself in making this the kind of legislative organization that is the pride of Western civilization. he spent most of his life here. He loved this body. He loved its Members and we loved him.”