Dan Crenshaw: “last Wednesday we announced on the floor of this House that our former colleague, Tillie Fowler, had passed away that…”

“last Wednesday we announced on the floor of this House that our former colleague, Tillie Fowler, had passed away that day. She suffered a stroke on Monday and went to the hospital and never recovered from that. It was a sad day for all of us, and there were so many Members that served with Tillie that wanted to honor her life and her achievements that we asked for this time tonight to celebrate her life, to celebrate the contributions that she made not only to her community, not only to the State of Florida, but to the Nation as a whole; and so that is why we are here tonight. Tillie Fowler was one of those unique individuals that could balance so many things in her life. I never had the chance to actually serve with Tillie because we were from the same hometown and while she served on the city council at the local level, I was serving in the State government; and when she left the Congress in 2000, I ran to take her seat. But I knew her as a friend for 35 years, and I watched her involve herself in the community, and I watched her get involved in local politics; I watched her become a United States House of Representative representative from the Fourth Congressional District. Through all of that, I saw the way that she loved her children, the way that she loved her husband, Buck, and the way that she loved her community.”