David Obey: “until last Saturday, Patsy was one of the three people left in this House who was here when I first came. At that time…”

“until last Saturday, Patsy was one of the three people left in this House who was here when I first came. At that time, she was one of a handful of progressives who would gather each week to discuss ways that we could prod our own party into being more aggressive in pushing for education and health and retirement needs of working people. I learned oh, so much from her. She was one of the best debaters in this House. She was a superb legislative craftsman; and above all, she had steel, and she had something else. She had a passion for justice, for women, for minorities, and the poor. She had a sense of rage about the opportunities that this House misses every day to do more for the people who have no other resource. We respected her, we loved her, this tiny woman with that giant heart. We were very lucky to have her as long as we had her. She made us all better than we ever expected to be.”