Jay Rockefeller: “I rise today to honor a giant of the Senate, my colleague and the senior Senator from West Virginia, Robert C. Byrd.…”

“I rise today to honor a giant of the Senate, my colleague and the senior Senator from West Virginia, Robert C. Byrd. Yesterday we watched a number of new Senators take an enormously important oath to serve our country and to defend our Constitution. I was included in taking that oath and I couldn't help but think of my new colleagues. If these new Senators are looking for an inspiration, a guiding light, or a model, the way that I did some years ago, they need look no further than the seat directly behind our distinguished majority leader. In that seat they will find a man who took that same oath that we did 50 years ago today. Senator Byrd has taken that oath a total of nine times. He has cast more votes than anyone in the history of the Senate. He has held more leadership positions than anyone in the history of the Senate. He has served longer than anyone in the Senate. He has literally written the book on the Senate and lived the story of the Senate over five decades. Robert C. Byrd is nothing short of a legend. However, 50 years ago today he was a young man from West Virginia who married a coal miner's daughter. He had spent 4 years in the West Virginia Legislature and 6 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. No one could know in 1959 that he would be a legend in 50 years. What they did know was Robert Carlyle Byrd was an ambitious self-starter who would put himself through law school while serving in the U.S. Congress.”