Willie Vaughn Post Office

WILLIE VAUGHN POST OFFICE -- (House of Representatives - October 18, 2005)

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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution to rename the U.S. Post Office in Parkdale, Arkansas the Willie Vaughn Post Office, and I want to first express my heartfelt appreciation to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) for sponsoring this renaming legislation. I also want to thank the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Berry), the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman), and the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Snyder) for their cosponsorships. It is also my pleasure to extend thanks to the honorable mayor and members of the Parkdale Arkansas City Council for their concurrence in the renaming of their town's post office: Ms. Glenda Wells, mayor; Louis Mitchell, alderman; Mark Hawkins, alderman; Paula Files, alderman; and Evora Parker, all whose families I knew and in some instances grew up with.

Madam Speaker, I stand here this afternoon with a tremendous amount of pride in being able to participate in passing this legislation.

First of all, I was born and grew up in Parkdale, Arkansas and lived there until I graduated from college. The man for whom we are renaming this post office, Mr. Willie Vaughn, whom we fondly called Uncle Dude and who is now 101 years old, was one of my primary mentors and role models and the most outstanding African American figure in that area for many years. Uncle Dude, who technically was not my uncle, he and my mother were stepbrothers, as they would be called, and sisters because their parents got married after his father's wife had died, and yet our families blended so close together until we were much closer than many blood relatives. As a matter of fact, as a result of the blending, my mother ended up with about 25 brothers and sisters.

In addition, Uncle Dude and my father were close associates and the best of friends, and I spent many a Sunday afternoon in their home eating Aunt L.C.'s famous egg pies.

Uncle Dude never had much formal education. My cousin Cora said that he finished the second grade, and yet he has always been one of the smartest and wisest persons that I have ever known. He had what we call a degree in CSTA; that is, common sense, talent, and ambition.

Legend of Folklore has it that Willie as a little boy did not take kindly to farm work, did not practice it, and did not act as though he wanted to learn. Therefore, he was called ``Dude'' and it stuck. However, Mr. Vaughn became self-taught and in many ways self-educated. He could do almost anything on and off the farm. He, like most of his peers, was a sharecropper, but he also owned the molasses mill and made syrup. He was a tailor and measured me for my first tailored suit, which another uncle of mine sent to me from St. Louis when I was graduating from elementary school, and, I might add, it was one of the few tailored suits that I have ever owned.

He was the chief lay person at our church, the Penny's Chapel CME Church, for more than 50 years, drove the school bus after we got one because we did not always have one, and was oftentimes the bridge between the black and white factions of the community in a small, rural southern town. Mr. Vaughn worked hard, acquired property, was a leading advocate for education, and commanded the respect of all segments of the town and of the area.

Uncle Dude was the Sunday school superintendent at our church for decades, and I shall never forget that, as a teenager, he gave me the opportunity to teach Sunday school, which may have been the reason that I eventually became a schoolteacher. Even in our small semi-isolated town, and he and other adults expressed and conveyed a strong appreciation for education, and I remember my cousin Aubry graduating from high school as the only person in his class.

As an avid church leader, Uncle Dude became a member of the general board of the CME Church and expressed great pride in the fact that he was able to vote to change the name from Colored Methodist Episcopal Church to Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

He was born the son of former slaves. Mr. Willie Vaughn epitomizes progress that this country has made. He is indeed a living legend who is still alive, alert, and spiritually as well as intellectually engaged. I would not be surprised to find out that he is watching these proceedings on C-SPAN. And if he is, I say congratulations, Uncle Dude, on a life well spent, a Nation well served, a family well loved, and a faith in God well preserved.

Madam Speaker, it is indeed with great pride that I urge passage of this bill and again thank the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Ross) for introducing it.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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