Nick Rahall: “in the rush to greatness upon which many of us embark in this city, in the heat of the TV camera lights, in the chaos of…”

“in the rush to greatness upon which many of us embark in this city, in the heat of the TV camera lights, in the chaos of clashing interests, it is important that we pause and take stock of those who brought us here, keep us here, and help make us. So this evening I thank and I pay respect to my long-time legislative director Birdie Kyle who passed away over our recent work period. Birdie once wrote, ``I am a native West Virginian born in Fayette County at MacDunn but raised up on Cabin Creek in the coalfields. I was born in a one-room abandoned boxcar. When I was little, my older sister tormented me when she felt like it by calling me ``Old Boxcar Bill.' I do not remember which made me the madder, being reminded that I was born in a boxcar or being called Bill when I was a girl. Probably both.'' That was Birdie Kyle writing for West Virginia's Goldenseal Magazine in 1980. Well, Boxcar Bill traveled far from her humble beginnings, but she never lost sight of the hills of home or the people there. Birdie Kyle, a true coal miner's daughter, a native West Virginian in every sense, served West Virginia and our Nation in the Congress for more than 3 decades. Birdie served with me since 1989, and I appreciate deeply her loyalty and dedication. Before that, she spent most of her career with the late Senator Jennings Randolph. Her mainstay of work for the Senator and for me was education. For Birdie, education was not a part of one's life. It was life itself.”