On the recordApril 8, 2019
today I wish to start off by just sharing a few words about our former colleague, Senator Fritz Hollings--Ernest F. Hollings, to be precise--of South Carolina. He passed away this weekend at his home in Isle of Palms. With Fritz Hollings, the people of South Carolina, the Senate, have lost a giant. Hollings was the longest serving junior Senator in American history--behind, of course, Strom Thurmond--representing his constituents for 38 years in the Senate. Before that, he was a Governor, State legislator, and World War II veteran. Public service was his life's calling. He championed education reform, increasing teachers' pay, a national voice in the fights against hunger and poverty. He was brought up in the old Jim Crow days, with a great deal of segregation, but as he went through South Carolina, he realized how terrible that was and began to move in the opposite direction. He was an original. You could always go over to Fritz Hollings. Even when I was a younger legislator, he would pay attention, and he would have something very interesting to say. Everyone talks about the days of blow-dried, look-alike Senators. Fritz Hollings certainly wasn't one of them. He was an original, and we were all much better for it. So Fritz, we will miss you, and our thoughts go with your family, as do our prayers and well wishes.
