Kay Granger: “Thank you. It is such an honor to speak about our good friend Ralph Hall. His background and what he has done is really…”

“Thank you. It is such an honor to speak about our good friend Ralph Hall. His background and what he has done is really amazing. He joined the Navy in 1942. He went to war. He came back and got an LLB from Southern Methodist University. He was admitted to the Texas Bar and became a county judge, the president of the State Judges and Commissioners Association. He was elected to the State senate and was president pro tem. Then in 1980, he came to the House of Representatives, where he still serves. The most important thing in Ralph's life, something that Joe Barton talked about--he said: ``If you are going to talk about how important my life is, you are going to talk about my wife, Mary Ellen,'' the love of his life. They married in 1944 and were married until she passed in 2008. But we are really not talking about what Ralph Hall did but who Ralph Hall is. Anyone who met him one time, the first thing you think about is that great smile. He was always smiling. He always had a twinkle in his eye and a joke on his lips. There is no one who tells jokes better than Ralph Hall. He has always got a story, and he has always got a joke. I had to go to The Dallas Morning News for an endorsement at the editorial board one time, and, unfortunately, Ralph was interviewed right before I was. I walked in and they were still laughing at his jokes. No one could even think of a question for me for a while. But he was just that kind of a person.…”