Lois Capps: “I rise to add my thoughts in remembrance of our dear friend and colleague, Tillie Fowler. I pay tribute to her, her…”

“I rise to add my thoughts in remembrance of our dear friend and colleague, Tillie Fowler. I pay tribute to her, her service here, the events in her life that made her who she was with respect to her family and her community. I knew her here in this place. I first got to know Tillie through her friendship with my late husband, Congressman Walter Capps. Walter and Tillie served only 10 months together before his death in 1997, and it might have appeared that they did not have much in common, but, in fact, they did. Tillie had been elected to a district that had been represented by a Democrat for 42 years. Walter's district had been represented by Republicans for 50 years. Both Tillie and Walter understood that it was more important to try to reach bipartisan solutions than to engage in partisan politics. Even as she rose through the ranks of her party's leadership, Tillie always tried to work across the aisle on issues that were important to her. One such issue where again she worked closely with my husband, Walter, was her support for the humanities.”