Todd Tiahrt: “I rise today to honor a former Member of this distinguished body, the late Congressman Garner E. Shriver. Congressman…”

“I rise today to honor a former Member of this distinguished body, the late Congressman Garner E. Shriver. Congressman Shriver was born July 6, 1912, in the small Butler County town of Towanda, Kansas. His family later moved to Wichita in 1925 where he attended public schools and graduated from Wichita East. He remained in Wichita to receive his undergraduate degree from the University of Wichita, now Wichita State University, in 1934. Today his congressional papers are kept in the Ablah Library at Wichita State. In 1940, he graduated from Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas. He put himself both through undergraduate and law school by working odd jobs, including serving as a doorman. In 1941, Garner Shriver married Martha Jane Currier, his wife for the next 50 years of his life. However, before he and Martha had a chance to begin raising a family, World War II pulled him away from home. Mr. Shriver enlisted in the Navy; and after 10 months, he received a commission as lieutenant, leaving the Navy after 3 years as an officer. At the end of the war, Lieutenant Shriver found himself commanding a boat group in the Pacific for the Navy. Not long after the war effort ended, Mr. Shriver made his first attempt at elected office. In 1946, he ran for the Kansas House of Representatives. He entered the race because, as he said, he felt he did not have anything to lose. Representative Shriver etched out a victory by a slim margin of only 222 votes.”