Kirk Watson: “I'd like to thank Stephanie Tubbs Jones for providing this opportunity for us to remember someone that I considered a…”

“I'd like to thank Stephanie Tubbs Jones for providing this opportunity for us to remember someone that I considered a dear friend before I came to the House. I met Julia in the 70s, and we bonded together because we were active in the National Conference of State Legislators, the Black Caucus. We were the two women in the Senate. And once you meet Julia, you never forget her. She had that kind of impact on you. And I remember her sitting up in the back with her head hanging very low. And she looked up and she saw, you know, I'd say, how are you feeling Julia, and she'd say, oh, great. Well, you knew she wasn't feeling great. But she said, you know, I want to go on a codel. So I'm taking my own codel because no one here will take me with them. That was Julia. And then I remember going out and she was standing against one of the pillars outside and hardly able to stand. I said, well, Julia, let me stand with you. She said, no, I'm holding on. My staff is coming after me. She was the can-do-it person. And regardless how bad the time was, she never let you know. She was the second one that went out with dignity and class and grace. And I knew that the time would not be long, because I called her office and I talked to her chief of staff; and when he said he was sitting at her bedside, I knew then that she wouldn't be back. And I saw Julia, like all of you did, as a leader, a crusader, a humanist. She understood racism and oppression, but she was never deterred by it.”