Sue Myrick: “I am very honored to just be able to say a word about Joe because Joe was truly a friend to all of us. He was always a…”

“I am very honored to just be able to say a word about Joe because Joe was truly a friend to all of us. He was always a gentleman and he was one of those people that if the rest of the Congress could be like him, I do not think we would have any problems. Yes, he was partisan and I was not of the same party, but we were good friends. He respected people as people. I think back at the things Joe has gone through because he had so many medical challenges in his life that probably would have gotten a lot of the rest of us down, but he always kept going and he always had that smile on his face. No matter what was happening, that smile was there and that just kept a lot of us going. I know last year when I went through breast cancer, he was probably my greatest encourager in this House. He just was always saying, you can do it and you are going to make it and do not give up. He said all of this to me constantly, and he just was somebody that I really admired and looked up to. It really did my heart good when we went to the funeral because when you saw all of those people in Boston lining the streets and really just in honor of Joe, it was because they knew him as just plain Joe. They did not look at him as Congressman Moakley. He was Joe. He never forgot where he came from. He never forgot his roots and people loved him because of that. He leaves a very, very big hole in this body. I was just very privileged to have a few years to be able to call him my friend.”