Mary Elizabeth ``bettie'' Cole Post Office Building

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DELUZIO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gill) for his support.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to ask this Chamber to honor and memorialize a beloved western Pennsylvania community leader, local historian, and author by voting ``yes'' on H.R. 1461.

Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Cole, fondly called Bettie by those who knew her and loved her, was born in Edgeworth, Pennsylvania, on April 5, 1923.

She moved to nearby Sewickley, Pennsylvania, in 1939, where she spent the rest of her life. She was a 1940 graduate of Sewickley High School, and shortly after graduation, she married and had two daughters who she raised and nurtured.

Many years later, in 1988, she retired from Point Park College, now Point Park University, as the associate director of office services and the director of the mailing department.

While she worked at Point Park, Mrs. Cole earned her associate of arts degree in journalism and communications. She was inducted into the Alpha Sigma Lambda, a National Honor Society for part-time students, as one of the 13 charter members of Point Park Gamma Epsilon chapter. She boasted at the time she was possibly and proudly the chapter's eldest member and nearly its only grandmother.

She put what she learned at Point Park to work for the benefit of her community, Quaker Valley, and beyond.

Mrs. Cole was passionate about the history of her family and the community in her hometowns.

For 20 years, she conducted countless hours of historic research, including interviewing more than 100 community members. In 2000, that work came to fruition with the publication of her book titled, ``Their Story: The History of Blacks/African Americans in Sewickley & Edgeworth.'' It was a one-of-a-kind documentation of a significant and often-overlooked part of the Sewickley Valley community's history and heritage.

Mrs. Cole passed away in 2016 at the age of 92, leaving behind a family and community proud of her contributions. I think those merit recognition, and what better way to memorialize Mrs. Cole and her work than by putting her name on the post office in the community she loved and chronicled. That history in Sewickley is a rich one, and Mrs. Bettie Cole is a key part of telling that shared story.

The Sewickley Borough Post Office at 521 Thorn Street is a beautiful, historical building. It would become an even more meaningful historical marker for the community if it were renamed the Mary Elizabeth ``Bettie'' Cole Post Office Building.

H.R. 1461 was cosponsored by the entire Pennsylvania congressional delegation, Democrats and Republicans alike. I thank my colleagues for their support, and I ask this Chamber's ``yea'' vote on H.R. 1461.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source