William R. Richardson: “I did not know Bill Emerson as well as some of my colleagues, but what I did not know of him, when I think of him and…”

“I did not know Bill Emerson as well as some of my colleagues, but what I did not know of him, when I think of him and remember him, I will think of the words decency, commitment, honesty, collegiality, civility, which is sometimes in this body something that we have lacked. The last word I ever heard him say was ``good''. I remember seeing him in his wheelchair and I asked him, Bill, how are you doing? And he said, ``I'm good.'' He was fighting till the end. A class guy, an honorable guy, a guy that when individuals think of this Congress, they see somebody in the best traditions of the men and women that serve here. Sometimes we speak ill of each other and speak ill of this institution. Bill Emerson loved this institution. He would be upset at those that reviled it, and I will always remember him as a man with class, a bipartisan person who cared deeply, a person who cared deeply by about this country, about hunger, about foreign policy, about his farming district, about where he came from, and I will always have that very good feeling about Bill Emerson.”