Barbara Mikulski: “I rise to speak today to pay tribute to the life and legend of Katharine Graham. It is as if the Washington Monument has…”

“I rise to speak today to pay tribute to the life and legend of Katharine Graham. It is as if the Washington Monument has fallen. It is as if the lights have gone out at the Smithsonian Institution or the lights have gone out at the Lincoln Memorial. I truly cannot imagine Washington without Kay Graham. She was a Washington institution, a very real person with a remarkable mix of qualities. Much has been said about her grace, her grit, her steel, her great intelligence. Kay Graham put those qualities into action. She lived an extraordinary life and left an indelible mark on our Nation. I know the Presiding Officer liked Kay Graham because she took chances. Perhaps one of the greatest chances she took was when she actually took the helm of the Washington Post. Think about it. It was 1963. It was not a time when women did bold things, power things, and they certainly were not on the rung of leadership to be CEOs. She was a woman who had faced an enormous personal tragedy. But as she reflected on where she was, where her family was, and where this newspaper was, she decided to take the helm. She was initially a reluctant leader, thrown into a leadership position because of the death of her husband. In embracing a leadership position, she set about hiring the very best people and giving them the independence to create one of the greatest newspapers in the world. She built a Fortune 500 company. And guess what.…”