On the recordNovember 20, 2013
today I wish to observe the birthday of one of the greatest Americans to grace these Chambers--Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr., better known to us--and to history--as Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia. Robert C. Byrd was born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr. in North Wilkesboro, NC. He was 10 months old when his mother died from flu, and he was adopted by his aunt and uncle, Titus and Vlurma Byrd. They changed his name to Robert Carlyle Byrd and raised him in the coal- mining Appalachian region of West Virginia. And in the 150 years of West Virginia's history, our State has had no greater advocate than Robert C. Byrd. Many in the Senate today served with Robert C. Byrd, and they can bear witness to the fact that the Senate, like the State of West Virginia, also had no greater advocate than Robert C. Byrd. Today would have been the Senator's 96th birthday, and every day since his passing in 2010, the people of West Virginia feel the loss of this great man. The Senate also feels his loss because no one knew the Senate--its history, its traditions, its precedents--better than Robert C. Byrd. He made it a point to meet with every new Senator and to impress upon them the fact that they were to be caretakers of this institution--an institution he regarded as both the morning star and the evening star of the American constitutional constellation.…
