Haley Stevens: “next Tuesday it will be my honor to be part of the funeral delegation to South Carolina to attend the funeral of our…”

“next Tuesday it will be my honor to be part of the funeral delegation to South Carolina to attend the funeral of our departed President pro tempore. When I first came to the Senate, I was in the Gallery up there watching the debate on the Alaska statehood bill. A filibuster was being led against that bill by the Senator from South Carolina. As a matter of fact, he held up the bill for a considerable period of time. Because of his opposition, we developed a strategy of trying to get the bill passed by the Senate without amendment--passed by the Senate as it had come to us from the House, without amendment. It was, I think, the only statehood bill in history that ever passed both Houses in identical form without amendment by the Senate. We did that because we knew if the bill went to conference and came back, Strom Thurmond would have another shot at the bill and another filibuster. I remember that today because I remember how, when I did finally arrive here in 1968 as a Member of the Senate, Strom came up to me and said: I remember you, boy. And he remembered I had been part of the group from the Eisenhower delegation that worked on our bill. We formed a friendship that day that I never expected to have. Strom was, as I have said, a distinguished member of the U.S. armed services. He was the oldest officer to land in Normandy. As we all know, he landed in a glider. The pilot was killed. I talked about that with Strom because I had been trained to fly gliders.”